[ExI] Fw: Re: atheists declare religions as scams.

[Ben Zaiboc]

Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, I'm new here, as well as being fairly new to atheistic
> beliefs.


Hi, Kelly, and welcome to the list.

Just out of interest, what are these 'atheistic beliefs' of which you speak?

Atheism means a *lack* of belief in the 'strong' sense of the word, in other words, the sense used by religious people, where the belief doesn't have any supporting evidence.  I still believe the sun will rise tomorrow though, which is the 'weak' sense of the word, and is evidence-based.  I don't think this can be called an 'atheistic belief' though.

Many religious types try to (mis)characterise atheism as a Belief (strong sense) that there are no gods, but this is not true.  That would be called anti-theism, I suppose, and would require just as much 'blind faith' as any religion. Well, nearly as much. I'm not talking about an assumption here, but a Belief.

Atheism makes a reasonable assumption, based on the available evidence (both the logical absurdities and the lack of physical evidence).  That's not a Belief.

I think this is a very important point, and atheists should watch out for this misconception wherever it occurs (including in themselves), and try to correct it.

Absence of belief != Belief of absence.

Ben Zaiboc