Not believing god exists and not believing god doesn't exist is sitting on the fence. Believing that god doesn't exist means having jumped off the fence to one side. Still can't tell the difference?
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Trying To Understand Atheism
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Cephus
Relentlessly Rational
Then that means there are virtually no atheists because the overwhelming majority of atheists simply lack belief in gods.
No, it's just a contradiction.
I suspect you mean to say 'believing nothing about the existence of god.'
Hence not believing in god.
Yes if you count as atheists only those who have jumped off the fence they are in the minority.
Which is the same as not believing god exists and not believing god doesn't exist. Fence sitters don't believe god exists and they don't believe god doesn't exist. They can jump off the fence to one side and believe god exists or they can jump off the fence to the other side and believe god doesn't exist. In the meantime they don't have any of those two beliefs.
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'Sitting on the fence' is probably not the best analogy to make your point. It's generally considered a bad place to be, because it suggests a person that will not take a stance. It implies a stubbornness that I suspect you don't intend; you intend for there to be no teetering, as if the tip of a picket were a secure place to be.
The term 'fence sitter' applies to those who will not decide way or the other. They are the minority, I think. Most atheists simply don't care or don't need a 'god' to inform how they go about their lives.
And those people are fence sitters. They haven't jumped down on the side of theists or on the side of strong atheists. They don't believe gods exist and they don't believe gods don't exist.
Thumper
Thank the gods I'm an atheist
Thumper
Thank the gods I'm an atheist
"I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.” ― Isaac Asimov
If one considers a scale where 1 is 100% certainty in the existence of God and 7 is 100% certainty in the non existence of God. Then Richard Dawkins considers himself - "The probability of any supernatural creator existing is very, very low, so let's say I'm a 6.9." ... "I am agnostic only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at the bottom of the garden."
I'll have to add this into any future discussion on the point, it's a great example of my problem with this type of atheism.
Dirty Penguin
Master Of Ceremony
As an atheist the existence of the supernatural isn't something I ponder. It seems to come up when I inform others I'm a non-believer or when I'm in a religious discussion around here. I tend to hold pretty much to my tag line below....
"And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence"
"And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence"
Milton Platt
Well-Known Member
Or they don't believe gods exist (atheist) but don't know with 100% certainty none can exist (agnostic)
I have 0% certainty in God's existence. There is nothing for me, to base any certainty on. An agnostic maybe feels like it is 50/50, therefore sitting on a fence I suppose.
I see no reason to sit on a fence because there's nothing to justify getting on the fence in the first place.
I don't think agnostic is about probability. Rather that they differentiate belief and knowledge, and say that it is unknown or unknowable with certainty if gods exist.
Cobol
Code Jockey
I'm not an atheist, for I'm a anti-theist.
An atheist simply believes no gods exist. An anti-theist is convinced and glad no gods exist. Hypothetically speaking, if god existed with all the pain and of suffering in the world, the only rational conclusion about God is that he’s either an imbecile or a psychopath. So, God’s existence could only make life more absurd, not less.
An atheist simply believes no gods exist. An anti-theist is convinced and glad no gods exist. Hypothetically speaking, if god existed with all the pain and of suffering in the world, the only rational conclusion about God is that he’s either an imbecile or a psychopath. So, God’s existence could only make life more absurd, not less.
Thumper
Thank the gods I'm an atheist
Or the agnostic position could be an argument that no one knows and no one can ever know. Which would be an inductive reasoned statement.
I would agree that no one knows, but I don't like the statement that no one can ever know. I might be true, but it just feels like a god of the gaps argument.
How is this fence sitting? Withholding belief till evidence appears is just basic atheism. It's the same reason I don't believe in unicorns or Russel's teapot.
Just so. Which is why people who are ignorant of god aren't atheists.
Basic atheism is not believing gods exist and not believing gods don't exist. Hence sitting on the fence.
If you don't believe gods exist and you don't believe gods don't exist you are automatically sitting on the fence and haven't jumped down to any of the two sides.