We are all born Atheists

[youjustcomplain]

I've found that as the more you move toward the polar extremes of fundamentalist believer and hard-core atheist minds do tend to close up and vision narrows accordingly. Isn't taking a firm stance one way or the other on something so firmly entrenched in the unknowable a bit of a folly in itself?

Might surprise you to find that I agree with this. I see the firm stance as that of asserting a god exists. God believers that I've spoken with, all seem quite certain that god exists, they aren't open to the possibility that "he" might not exist. Whereas, I'm not saying god doesn't exist. I don't think god exists, but without the ability to prove he doesn't exist, I remain open minded to the possibility. I think it's a very reasonable place to be. Some Atheists do take it much farther than that in making claims that evolution proves god doesn't exist, or by quoting bible passages to prove god is a lie. I've never understood it myself.

[Glacier]

Atheists are not 'skeptical' about god....and it has been pointed out many times over that our lack of belief isn't simply about a lack of 'facts'.

Huh? I could have sworn that atheists are so skeptical about claims about god that they call themselves skeptics. You could be right, maybe these skeptic groups I keep hearing about are skeptical about global warming claims or Monsanto claims instead.

[JLives]

Huh? I could have sworn that atheists are so skeptical about claims about god that they call themselves skeptics. You could be right, maybe these skeptic groups I keep hearing about are skeptical about global warming claims or Monsanto claims instead.

Well, maybe stop trying to group all atheists as sharing any view other than a lack of belief in a deity. That is the ONLY thing we have in common. Some atheists believe in ghosts. Some atheists are anti-vaccine. Some atheists believe in a soul. We do not share any form of dogma.

[JLives]

I've found that as the more you move toward the polar extremes of fundamentalist believer and hard-core atheist minds do tend to close up and vision narrows accordingly. Isn't taking a firm stance one way or the other on something so firmly entrenched in the unknowable a bit of a folly in itself?

Why do you say it's unknowable? Is anything knowable? How do you define us as knowing something?

[Nomaster]

Knowledge of empirical facts about the physical world will necessarily involve perception,in other words, the use of the senses. Science, with its collection of data and conducting of experiments, is the paradigm of empirical knowledge. However, much of our more mundane knowledge comes from the senses, as we look, listen, smell, touch, and taste the various objects in our environments.

Of course, I cannot have knowledge of something on the other side of our solar system, for example. But if my senses, amplified by telescopes, for example, sees something then it is now in the realm of what I can sense and then learn more about.

An invisible God who works in mysteriously inefficient ways is just as likely as my childhood invisible friend being real.