stevecanuck
Well-Known Member
That might have carried more weight had you not just indicated that you don't know what a god is, or else use language cavalierly. Perhaps you meant that atheists critique Reuters or any of the other news sources you just called gods.
The comment is incorrect whatever "gods" mean to you unless it is fallacious thought. Critiquing that is the skeptics chief occupation in these threads.
I just read the following words on another thread in reference to the war in Ukraine: "I do know that God knows how useless this war has been." Although I declined to comment, had I, it would have been something to indicate how useless this god is. That wouldn't have been a criticism of this god, which I don't believe exists, although it probably would be understood as that by its author and most other theists including you. Nevertheless, it would be a criticism of the incoherence of at once calling a god loving and all-powerful, then noting that it is described as sitting idly by. That's incoherent. The alert apologist recognizes this, and so, if asked about it, devises some explanation as to why this is somehow the behavior of a loving god.
References to Quranic scripture by skeptics disagreeing with you in this thread are not references to Allah, who is not believed to exist, or his ways, but rather, references to what Muslims believe and have used to justify their atrocities.
If that appears to be a critique of a god to you, you might want to try to assimilate what atheism means. Atheists don't believe in gods, just like presumably, you don't believe in leprechauns and vampires. Do you critique their decisions to bite people in necks or hide pots of gold? Hopefully not. And if you did have a comment about either of these, it wouldn't be a criticism of creatures you don't believe exist, but in the thoughts of others regarding these imaginary creatures.
Bonus question: What are the characteristics of the existent? What do all things that exist have in common that is untrue about all nonexistent imaginations? Contrast wolves, which do exist, with werewolves, which we assume don't. Then ask yourself why gods have the same manifestation in nature as werewolves - nowhere to be found in time or space, and unable to affect or be affected by reality. None of those things are true of wolves, because they exist, and that's the point.
And how do we know that wolves exist but (probably) not werewolves? By these criteria, which manifest as evidence to the senses for the real, but not the nonexistent. This is the basis for an empirical epistemology, and why we shouldn't believe anything exists which cannot generate sensible evidence of that existence. That's why I'm an atheist. I can't distinguish gods from werewolves. And when I refer to either, I am only referring to their descriptions, which do exist - not the entities themselves. And if either gods or werewolves ever do manifest in nature, we recategorize them as real.
What an excellent post! Too bad it will fall on deaf ears.