Totalitarianist

To quote Sagan:-- "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence".

Until the extraordinary evidence is provided, it is only logical to lack a belief in God (weak Atheism); however, at the same time, it is illogical to deny the existence of God, as the non-existence of God, an extraordinary claim, would require extraordinary evidence; moreover, it is equally illogical to believe in the existence of God, for that would also require extraordinary evidence.

Hence, the most logical belief to subscribe to is either weak Atheism or agnosticism.

Okay... someone's playing a prank. I do not like this.

[ June 17, 2002: Message edited by: Pseudonym ]</p>

AtlanticCitySlave

Why is it an extraordinary claim that God doesn't exist?

Totalitarianist

Because God is ineffable. You cannot logically deny what you cannot define. Claiming, with doubtless certaintly, that God does not exist is an extraordinary claim.

If you merely lack a belief, than you are not claiming anything.

Edit: The quote

[ June 17, 2002: Message edited by: Pseudonym ]</p>

Jayhawker Soule

Personally, I think weak atheists should bulk up. And why is it any more or less extraordinary than the rejection of Nymphs and Leprechauns?

( BTW, I almost always view with suspicion assertions starting with 'Hence' and 'Thus'. )

RogerLeeCooke

I'm sure this point has been made many times, but at the risk of boring people, I'll point out that until we have a description of the term "god," we can't meaningfully discuss existence.

I find it much more useful to talk about the existence of this or that specific god. The Christian god is the obvious one. Taken with the attributes Christians ascribe to him/her/it, this god is extremely unlikely. Of course, there is a lot of variety in Christians' beliefs about this god, so it generally takes a variety of arguments to refute them.

Totalitarianist

As mentioned earlier by myself on this thread, it is illogical to believe in something you cannot define (theism); it is equally illogical to deny the existence of what you cannot define (strong atheism).

Strong Atheists and theists are illogical creatures.

[ June 17, 2002: Message edited by: Pseudonym ]</p>

Indifference

I agree. I would feel confident claiming that the Christian God, specifically, does not exist. But to claim that no God/gods exist would be to suggest that I have absolute knowledge of things physical an non. This is the naive mistake any religion makes, and which I do not wish to.

So yes, for me, weak atheism/agnosticism.

Totalitarianist

I've edited the last word on the above sentence ("creatures") now four times. It keeps mysteriously changing to the word "claim". Someone is changing it.

[ June 17, 2002: Message edited by: Pseudonym ]</p>

Jayhawker Soule

Do we have a substantially better definition of 'cosmos', 'the natural world', or 'natural law'?

[ June 17, 2002: Message edited by: ReasonableDoubt ]</p>

Autonemesis

I've seen only the word "creatures" in your posts. Methinks your browser cache is playing tricks on you, showing you old versions of your posts from your cache rather than getting the new post from the site.