Thomas on Warpcast

Content pfp

https://warpcast.com/~/channel/atheism

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

There is this famous quote from Richard Dawkins: “We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.“ 1/5

4 replies

0 recast

15 reactions

Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

I would go one step further and propose that not only is everyone an atheist to *some* degree, but none more so than an actual believer. Why? 2/5

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

Assuming N deities in human history (the exact value of N does not matter here — estimates of 10,000 are common), the believer believes in just 1 (or one pantheon), and firmly rejects the remaining N-1 because they are mutually exclusive (sometimes to the point of heresy). 3/5

1 reply

0 recast

1 reaction

Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

The typical atheist rejects just one more deity, for a total of N, but not as firmly: the atheist’s lack of belief isn’t symmetrical to the believer’s faith. It’s just a default position that awaits incontrovertible evidence, without rejecting the tenuous possibility. 4/5

2 replies

0 recast

0 reaction

Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

The believer’s position is, in aggregate, a much more resolute position against the existence of most deities than the atheist’s position against the existence of all deities. 5/5

2 replies

0 recast

1 reaction

dusan.framedl.eth 🎩 pfp

dusan.framedl.eth 🎩

if that's true, are these people you're talking about really atheists? and can you use "math" like this when you're dealing with infinites?

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

Yes. I’m an atheist, I don’t believe in any god. That doesn’t mean that I reject the possibility that a god exists; I don’t know that it does, nor which one it is of all the infinite possibilities. That’s still being an atheist, and yet is a softer position than a theist who refuses to consider any other god

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

dusan.framedl.eth 🎩 pfp

dusan.framedl.eth 🎩

ok, looks like a definition problem. i've seen both, but i believe people who don't reject the possibility are believers in a sense. which might be actually what you're suggesting. but when you compare the most fundamental from both camps, atheists "believe less" imo.

2 replies

0 recast

0 reaction

Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

I tend to see it the other way around. I don’t believe in god because I have no reason to, no evidence for it. I don’t reject the possibility, though, because the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

That’s more or less the agnostic position (“without knowledge”). But it’s also strictly speaking an atheist position (“without a god”). So clearly there’s a category error in trying to separate those positions

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

Whereas claiming that the existence of a deity is impossible and to be firmly rejected (the antitheist position) is much more of a belief, because it lacks evidence (and for good reason: the inexistence of a deity can never be proven)

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

After that, what’s left is more or less Russell’s teapot, by which you can *reasonably* speculate on the absence of a deity even though you can never formally prove it’s not there

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction