Can one ever be a true athiest?

[styley]

Do you actually believe that it is possible to be 100% truly athiest, with not a single doubt in your mind about the existence of a god out there somewhere. I have to admit that deep deep deep down somewhere there will always be something niggling away to make me wonder. It is probably because it is drilled into you as a child and it is very hard to dispel those life lessons be they true or false.

[Le Chat]

For a religious person who believes in Adam and EVe or the like, then to believe in evolution shatters their whole foundation of God and their belief. This is why, when faced with scientific evidence of evolution, they will just not entertain it. It would just be to hurtful, too painful and above all make them feel 'too alone!' It brings the finality of death to be exactly that....final.

[chakka35]

styley, I don't know. Chemicals are part of the universe and we don't how how the universe came about. I don't know; you don't know; the Archbish of Cant doesn't know.

[chakka35]

No, keyplus90, I haven't seen evolution. I haven't seen atoms either. Are you seriously suggesting that the only possible form of evidence is visual?

[jake-the-peg]

Surprisingly Styley if you absolutely believe 100% there is no God you are not an athiest.

Obviously your belief in the non existance of God is an irrational belief and hence just a different form of theism.

The true athiest would accept the possibility of a God although rejecting any of the current evidence for it. The reason for disbeleif is then just that there is no evidence for it.

For any position to be truely rational it has to be falsifyable. In other words you have to be able to give some set of evidence, however improbable that would cause you to reverse your opinion.

Otherwise you've just invented your own religion

[naomi24]

Keyplus You said 'Has anyone seen Evolution with his own eyes?'

What's your point?

You may as well ask 'Has anyone seen God with his own eyes?'

[keyplus90]

Naomi - People who believe in God, they believe in Unseen. Are you trying to say that people who believe in Evolution they do the same?

[naomi24]

Keyplus, wasn't that what you were saying?

[mibn2cweus]

It is possible to believe or not in whatever you choose. Belief does not in itself create, alter, nor dispense with reality. But the refusal to accept reality for what it is endangers the believer and those affected by their actions by how those actions effect and ultimately play out in reality. Because of the real consequences of actions it is an individuals responsibility to determine whether the beliefs that guide their choices and actions correspond to reality.

In order to make a determination as to whether god (or anything else) exists or not one must first define the nature of what it is they are considering the existence of. Only after stipulating the nature of a supposition is it possible to determine or offer proof of whether or not something exists.

The belief in the existence of god is shown to be rationally absurd by either demonstrating that a proposed definition of god contradicts something we do know about reality, (for instance something, anything, can not both be and not be at the same time), or by equating �God� with something else, �God is reality�, in which case �God� is nothing more than a redundancy, adding a useless new term to an already sufficient vocabulary.

To simply state that �God exists� or �God does not exist� is a meaningless non-assertion. You might as well say, �Nothing exists�, and thereby relay no less information about what it is you are attempting to assert.

cont~

[mibn2cweus]

The other term in the phrase �God exists� is equally important to understand. Existence is axiomatic, it can not be proven by virtue of the fact that it is the self-evident which any and all further proofs rely and must follow. Existence is not falsifiable. At the same time existence must be presumed in any attempt to deny it. To say that nothing exists is to deny your own existence as well as the words you have uttered. That is the most exemplary form of a contradiction.

Existence is the most primary fundamental characteristic of reality presupposed by identity and consciousness. Existence can not be created nor destroyed, it simply is. Nothing precedes existence, not identity, consciousness, the universe in which we evolved nor �God�. God is not the creator of existence but the product of a mind that does not comprehend that the existence of a fallacious mind must of necessity precede the creation of such a logically absurd delusional belief.

[FKNelectro]

im agnosting, i was raised christian, just cos our school went to church regularly, but i dont believe most of it.
i dont believe in god, but i believe there is a higher power, something bigger than myself.
so basically, if someoens really self centered, they are probably a true athiest

[mibn2cweus]

50 proofs of an imaginary god

[styley]

Good link mib, some amount of reading.