decalog10

Question: How do atheists justify their trust in reality?
It's clear that atheist trust reality, believe that it has value and meaning but at the same time reality as a whole is uncertain, all that is can also not be, existence is fragile, transitory and ultimately futile, ending in nothingness.
Given this uncertain reality, how do atheist justify their trust in reality?
A Nihilist is someone who doesn't trust reality, who believes that reality as a whole has no meaning or value.
It seems to me a religious person trusts reality, despite all its uncertainty, and he know why he trusts it, his trust is ultimately justified, unlike the atheist.

Splarnst

If there are no gods, then the religious person has no justification, just a mistaken belief.

ziffel

Believing in an invisible friend in the sky does nothing to make reality more certain, less fragile, or less futile. It's just another perception.

trendkill

By the principle of credulity, which justifies induction and contingent knowledge.

You say that as if you detect a contradiction. :P Perhaps we don't trust it as much as theists do, but that doesn't mean we can't trust it at all. Recognition of limited knowledge leads to humility, which is a virtue.

Not sure where you got that from. Nihilists obviously trust reality to lack meaning or value.
It seems to me that the theist gets a little too big for his epistemological britches when he starts thinking this, given the confused state of actual religions in the world.

Straight Hate

I believe I will die; I believe I can easily be killed.

What more 'reality' do I really need?

If this is all an 'illusion', so what? It acts exactly like a reality. Wordplay doesn't really change things for me.

DBT

Unlike the Gods, reality constantly proves itself.

RAFH

I don't know how atheists in general justify their trust in reality, because atheism isn't about trusting or not trusting reality, its a lack of belief in god(s) and other theistic beings. Sometimes that might include the supernatural at large as well.

Myself, I tend to include the supernatural in the class of things I do not have a belief in. I prefer reality, as close and personal as possible. I am amazed normal people would choose to believe in imaginary beings and, essentially, magic and fairy tales.

The reason I accept, even avidly so, reality is because its real. Yes, the old saw you don't really know if you aren't a brain in a jar, yeah, so? If that's the case, so what? Its a pretty damn good simulation of what reality seems to be.

That brings up the basic form of my operational existence. Everything is essentially a model of reality, what counts is how accurate and reliable that model is. My trust isn't in reality per se, its in the degree of accuracy and reliability of my models. Most of the time they are very accurate and reliable, certainly enough for my purposes. This is maintained by constant verification of the models against reality. How well do they consistently correlate with reality? Most of the time there is a very high degree of correlation and consistency, both in the various measurements and observations I make personally, which I generally assign the highest reliability factor, but also those measurements and observations others make, so, what's not to trust? When my models don't correlate with reality, I change them to make them conform more closely to reality. Of course, I can't do it all. So, yes, I do trust people who are dedicated to using similar methods, generally a variation of the scientific method, and openly report their procedures, findings and conclusions for review by any and all. No secrets, no magic.

So, its not so much a matter of blind trust. The trust goes only as far as it is justified by the results it yields.

But why do I trust reality to be real? Because I have no choice. If it isn't real, if it isn't consistent, if isn't reliable, I'm fucked. So is everybody and everything else. Fortunately, that's never happened, not ever, not anywhere known. In every investigation, the answers come back and they validate the model, or the model has to change. Its not a big deal. Its the way reality is. Reality has been consistently coherent and reliable. Its never not been so. My models of it have occasionally been wrong but reality has always worked. I fix my models and move on. If reality suddenly stops working, we will probably cease to exist and it won't be a problem any more.

Think about it like this. You are in a pit and its too deep for you to get out by yourself. But there is a rope hanging over the side and down to where you can reach it but only if you jump out over a deeper part of the pit you will never get out of and if you fall down there you will likely get hurt very bad and die. If the rope breaks or isn't fixed to something solid, you will fall into the deeper pit. But if you want out of the pit so you won't eventually starve to death, you are going to have to trust the rope. Take it or leave it.

decalog10

If there are no gods, then the religious person has no justification, just a mistaken belief.

Well that certainly doesn't answer my question does it?

MrWhy

Reality can be verified, which means it is consistent, reacts as expected, will not let you down. If your view of reality is not consistent and predictable then your view is not accurate. Much of reality can be sensually experienced. Some reality that cannot be sensed can be directly or indirectly measured scientifically.

Reality is not relative to the observer, as some would suggest. If two people jump off a 20-story building, landing on a concrete street, except for a few details, the results are not very relative. They are the same and predicable.

There is a class of events called thoughts, emotions, etc., that are wholly contained in a mind. (mind events?) Some people include these in the domain of reality, but mind events are very different in that they only exist to the experiencer. While these electrochemical events can be affected by external events, and also have effects within and outside the mind/body, the events themselves only exist in the individual mind that created them. This is the realm where gods live. They have no other known existence. Like the impact of a certain word dispersed in the air, their meaning and power is relative and manifest solely in a mind. These characteristics cause me to not include them as part of the reality domain.

Perahelion

Atheists are simply more evolved beings than theists, theists believe there is a mystical component to life of which there is absolutely no proof therefore they are likey to trust more in fantasy for their survival, atheists will be more practical and more likely to survive.