Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
I don't see why anyone wouldn't have an answer to that question.
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Lack of Belief
- Thread starter Willamena
- Start date
I don't see why anyone wouldn't have an answer to that question.
Assuming none of them do, what distinguishes the thesist from the atheist in terms of his belief?
Or are you just looking at it from a strictly atheistic perspective, assuming the theist is an atheist "in disguise"?
Then does a state of "freedom" lack truth?
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
How could you assume that a theist wouldn't have an answer to the question 'What is God?' What exactly would they be believing in?
I don't understand the question. But, no, I do not think theists are atheists in disguise. Not by a long shot.
According to your post above, they are believing in "God(s)".
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Right...that's what a theist is...
And what distinguishes the theist from the atheist or the agnostic?
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
They believe in god(s)....how many times do we have to go through the same thing? I have no idea where this line of questioning is going, but I think you need to re-read the posts, because it's possible you misread something or are making an unwarranted assumption. Not sure, but none of these questions seem to make any sense.
And if I were to ask the theist "What is 'God'?" would he have an answer?
We are going in circles because you seem to believe that people can believe in things without knowing what it is they have assigned truth to.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Ah, I misread post #21. My mistake.
Caladan
Agnostic Pantheist
Hold on Willamena, are you saying beliefs equal truth?
Hm.
I'm almost tempted to say that disbelief in something denotes a belief about that something... specifically, the belief that you don't think it exists/is true etc.
Lack of belief, on the otherhand, denotes an ambivalence either way: you neither believe, nor disbelieve, that the thing exists or not.
I'm almost tempted to say that disbelief in something denotes a belief about that something... specifically, the belief that you don't think it exists/is true etc.
Lack of belief, on the otherhand, denotes an ambivalence either way: you neither believe, nor disbelieve, that the thing exists or not.
As I said in the OP, "to believe" is to assign truth to a thing, which is to say that we believe in things that are true. It's because they are true that we believe.
Caladan
Agnostic Pantheist
Yes, and here is why I said Freedom. the freedom to be free of delusion. there are billions of people around the world, all have beliefs, all these beliefs cannot be synchronised and true, even though most people are completely convinced. to believe something is true, does not make it so.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
I could almost agree with this, except for the fact that it's generally not possible to find anything that is actually a shared belief among many people.
For instance, I could say I 'disbelieve' in the christian god, but what exactly am I expressing my disbelief in? I don't think I've found two christians who are actually believing in the exact same thing, nor can I be aware of how many different versions of the christian god there are, so saying I disbelive in the christian god is meaningless. Saying that I have an absence of bellief in any and all god(s) is the simplest, most honest, and most accurate way of describing my viewpoint.
sandandfoam
Veteran Member
All these beliefs can be subjectively true, of course they can. If I believe it's true, then for me it's true. Same for you.
I believe in objective truth. But I know that it's not available to me. Or you.
PureX
Veteran Member
My first problem with this is that I don't understand what it means to "believe in" something. We believe something, or we don't believe it. I don't know what "believing in something" means.
Secondly, the criteria at hand is not the belief, or disbelief "in" god/s, it believing that god/s exist or do not exist. The belief is not relative to the idea of god, it's relative to the actual existence of the god/s we idealize. The idea of god clearly exists. That's not the question. The question is does the idea we have of god have any actual correspondence in reality? Does our "god" exist?
So an atheist isn't someone who "lacks a belief in god", whatever that even means. An atheist is someone who believes that our idea of god has no actual correspondence in reality. Like the unicorn, it is a mythical ideal, only.
Caladan
Agnostic Pantheist
Let me say again, this is why I say lack of belief is freedom.
"To believe something is true" is a different beast from "to believe something," which is the assignment of truth. "To believe something is true" is to say that you believe in the assignment (truth) rather than the thing.