ishalon

Why have all the atheism essays I have read (the internet was my only source) always been based on arguing against someone?
Authors always quote from other atheist books, creationist views, christian arguments... but never create their own arguments. Its as bad as every christian essay containing a quote from the bible, and 99% from paul's letters to churches.
I became atheist without any outside input at all, i was brought up christian... but even searching the infidels library all the essays i have seen outside of biblical arguments are based on disproving theorys, proving people wrong etc.

Does anyone here have there own individual reason?
i won't post mine yet

enemigo

Atheism is simply a lack of a belief in any sort of deity. The reason most of us don't believe in any gods is due to lack of evidence. I'm not sure what kind of atheistic argument you're looking for. Personal atheistic revelations?

richard

ishalon

you miss the point - why do atheists have to draw on books, writings and quotes to form a point?

Philosoft

If we're talking about the Judeo-Christian God, Yahweh is defined as 'existing' outside the materialistic realm. Such 'things' are logically identical to nothing, without an attendant concept. Hence, a positive argument for the non-existence of God is impossible without the prior existence of the concept of God. It would be like my asking you to provide a self-sufficient reason for not believing in the spiflitz.

Jamie_L

If no one in the history of the human race had ever believed in God, we wouldn't have a concept of atheism. Just as (to borrow from the previous quote) we have no concept of aspiflitzism.

Now, you could make positive arguments for something like, say, naturalism. But that's a concept unto itself, and different from simply being atheist.

To use the trite example of Santa Claus: asantaism is the the lack of belief in Santa Claus. Can you make an arguement for asantaism without making reference to Santa Claus?

Jamie

ishalon

good replies, but some writers still quote too much

Bill

Perhaps this is an attribute of defending a "negative idea" (the lack of a belief in any God or gods).

Humanism, on the other hand, is a positive worldview and has (among many other documents) a series of Humanist Manifestos to rely upon for their founding principles. The first of these (from 1933) is now referred to as the <a href="http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/manifesto1.html" target="_blank">Humanist Manifesto I</a>. The second of these (from 1973) is referred to as the <a href="http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/manifesto2.html" target="_blank">Humanist Manifesto II</a>. Neither of those documents relies upon extensive quotes or rebuttals for other materials in order to make its positive case for humanism.

== Bill