Atheists questioning their Atheism?

[doppelganger]

Does a mainstream Christian believer question her disbelief in Odin, Zeus, Allah, Amaterasu or Xenu?

Everybody is an atheist to some extent and most religious adherents are atheist with regard to every god out there but one.


The question "do you believe in God?" necessarily has to be preceded by some agreement about what it is I asking myself about. There's nothing to question about "atheism" itself, once that first question is resolved.

 

[bobhikes]

Personally, If something comes up I did not already know or understand and now I do I run it through all my beliefs.

Its the only smart thing to do.

 

[Autodidact]

Does this ever happen? I notice Atheists like to push Theists to question Theism, or even sometimes accuse Theists of not questioning enough because we didn't arrive at Atheism. Now I ask this. Do Atheists ever question their Atheism?

I question mine every day. That's pretty much what I'm here for--to give theists a chance to test my hypothesis. The fact that all of their arguments are either circular or special pleading has only confirmed it for me. I would think that if there were a decent argument for theism, someone would have made it by now. All I've ever gotten is:

If you assume that God exists, then you conclude He exists, aka faith AND
the watchmaker argument. Which I do not find persuasive.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I don't question any of my rational conclusions. I consider and analyze any new information that becomes available, but I doubt I'd be an atheist in the first place if I questioned rationality.

 

[RitalinO.D.]

I don't question any of my rational conclusions. I consider and analyze any new information that becomes available, but I doubt I'd be an atheist in the first place if I questioned rationality.

There inlies a problem. Most theists don't take the the time to research their beliefs. Mater of fact, most theists I know are only believers because they were raised that way, with some raised to never question that belief. If they are never confronted with logical debate on the subject, most will be that way till they die.

It just seems to me that if you are going to spend your entire life believing in something, why would you do it ignorantly?

 

[Ubjon]

As I can't make myself believe in the Tooth Fairy or God then no I generally don't question my lack of belief in supernatural/superstitious entities.

 

[Luminous]

Agnosticism is logical only if you don't have certain knowledge of something. I am Agnostic in some regards, but not so in others. If you have personal experiences proving god to you, you can't say you have no certain knowledge of it's existence. Maybe of it's attributes, yes.

I think we're all Agnostic to an extent. Some more then others.

If you take a good philosophy class, the history of philosophical fail will show you that you are completely agnostic. If i have a personal experience that gravity didn't work...it could have just been in a dream.
we're all agnositc period.

 

[lunamoth]

If you take a good philosophy class, the history of philosophical fail will show you that you are completely agnostic. If i have a personal experience that gravity didn't work...it could have just been in a dream.
we're all agnositc period.

You've been reading too much Hume.

 

[doppelganger]

You've been reading too much Hume.

You can't have too much Hume.

 

[nonbeliever_92]

Yes, but is questioning ever how some Atheists may find their way back to Theism? I've seen a few cases of this being so.

This sorta assumes theism is the default posiiton. It isn't, atheism is.

Do I question my atheism? Yes, but not often. It usually follows me daydreaming about something and then a thought such as "What if we're all just an some old science fair project in some diety's attic that they long ago forgot about and one day he'll throw us out! " But then my head says something akin to "that doesn't even make sense." True Story.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

How can you say that Atheism is the default position?

 

[doppelganger]

How can you say that Atheism is the default position?

Do you believe in Shnorklekus?

 

[nonbeliever_92]

How can you say that Atheism is the default position?

poeople are born without a belief in God or any diety.

 

[nonbeliever_92]

Do you believe in Shnorklekus?

No, but i believe in his brother, Schvndcklsck

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

How can you say that Atheism is the default position?

There are three possibilities for a default position:

- accept all claims until given reason not to. This is logically untenable, because it would imply accepting contradictory claims as true simultaneously.

- accept some claims and not others. What criteria would you use to decide which claims to accept? It can't be the merits of the claim, since we're talking about what position to take before the merits of a claim are known. Again, it's logically untenable.

- accept no claims until given reason to accept them. This is the only possibility that's logically consistent and workable.

 

[Dirty Penguin]

poeople are born without a belief in God or any diety.

Exactly.....:yes:

 

[lunamoth]

poeople are born without a belief in God or any diety.

Of course, we are also born without a knowledge of calculus.

 

[doppelganger]

Of course, we are also born without a knowledge of calculus.

And most of us never acquire any. Doesn't change that the default position is "acalculus."

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Do you believe in Shnorklekus?

That's no indicator that Atheism is the default position. Children certainly would believe in something like that, and they also believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny. This is an indicator that humans have an inherent idea of a higher power.

 

[lunamoth]

And most of us never acquire any. Doesn't change that the default position is "acalculus."

True, but it's not a ringing endorsement for the default position.