[extropy-chat] grow closer to god--through the mail!!

[Damien Broderick]

At 09:41 AM 11/30/2004 -0800, Mike wrote:

>My intention is to point out that I don't know enough to know one way
>or the other, and neither do you or anybody else, so atheism is as much
>a religion as any other belief based on faith/lack of facts. Some
>self-proclaimed atheists, like yourself, have a knee-jerk reaction to
>such a statement, that is entirely emotional, not based on any rational
>basis of logic.

For another nice summary of why this is also bollocks, look at a site I 
found linked from the tragically late Yeduha Nattan Yudkowsky's blog: 
http://www.graveyardofthegods.com/articles/cantprovenegative.html

< The rules of logic and science indicate that there must be some kind of 
basis (either in substance or in thought) for an assertion or else it 
*must* be denied.  An assertion, without evidence, is not accepted as 
true.  That is the default position, the position that defines what 
critical thought *is.*  Critical thought means not believing things you are 
told unless there is evidence to back it up.  And without critical thought, 
logic and science are abandoned, and this is the only kind of productive 
thought humanity has ever come up with.  To reject critical thought is to 
turn one's back on thinking and embrace the Dark Ages.  That's the answer 
to this statement in theory.

However, in practice, there is usually a lot more happening with the person 
who makes such a proclamation.  The person who makes this kind of statement 
has a great many fundamental misunderstandings about the nature of logic, 
science, and productive thought. >  etc etc.

Damien Broderick