The Crack that Lets the Light In

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The crack being atheism.
I'm not giving up on having a thread for atheists. Friendly voices of all persuasions are welcome. Just check arguing notions at the door. I am interested in knowing who else is an atheist and how life is treating you.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 15 • Views: 22,424 • Replies: 304

[+5] - jespah - 06/04/2022A word to all, and I mean all. 1) You do not have to answer every barking dog. Your position will not be sullied by not answering every single nitpicky counterargument. 2) Threads naturally...
[+5] - edgarblythe - 01/05/2025[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BFIRgn9OLI[/youtube]
[+4] - hightor - 05/04/2022You mean that's a fraud too???
[+4] - edgarblythe - 11/23/2024You have a right to believe. Why not accord me the same right to think my way?
[+3] - hightor - 05/05/2022[quote]Not at all. And like most atheists...you continue to avoid the question.[/quote] I'm not avoiding the question, I just don't want to be subjected to your disdain. I haven't made any claims...
[+3] - hightor - 05/05/2022[quote]Do you assert that there are no gods?[/quote] We've had this discussion before. I explained that if I am to be labeled an "atheist" it is because I have no use for the concept of...
[+3] - edgarblythe - 05/06/2022â��For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to...
[+3] - izzythepush - 05/06/2022So do it, allow the atheists their own space without having constantly to respond to your mantra.
[+3] - hightor - 06/03/2022[url=https://secularhumanism.org/2022/06/on-agnosticism/][size=150]On Agnosticism[/size][/url] by Jack May [quote]In an age simultaneously still reeling from the decline of religion and one...
[+3] - edgarblythe - 11/23/2024In my recently published book is an incident in which the protagonist's live-in girlfriend makes a plan to burn a candle for his deceased brother, whose body is back in the states with the feds....

@edgarblythe,

I’m an agnostic so I’m being bold by my self-inflicted spouting. I can’t know what is unknowable. I’m going to die eventually but seriously doubt I’ll ‘know’ anything after that because I’ll be busy being dead. After all, at that point I’ll be dead and without a body. What will be left to have any impact without a body is unknown. Electrical impulses without any cohesion. Hmmmm!?

I refuse all the handwringing and “god-botherers”. Not my cup of tea. Only trouble I see is Agnostic and Atheists have no holidays…yet!

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As I have stated elsewhere, atheists don't need a reason to be atheists. Our reasoning can be intellectual, but it can also be very private. I've stated my case elsewhere on page one of this locked thread. https://able2know.org/topic/569276-1

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@Ragman,

Thanks for your input, rags.

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@edgarblythe,

Well, of course there's no definitive answer to whether there is a god, but I tend to believe there isn't one. Some people refer to 'the universe' or 'spirit guides' and other such things, but I have a hefty skepticism in anything spiritual, including God.

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@Mame,

Many of us keep our skepticism hidden in our daily lives to avoid complications. I keep it mum mostly, except when cornered.

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@edgarblythe,

Yeah, I rarely discuss religion, abortion, vaccinations, and other contentious issues. Mostly because I just don't care what other people think or believe. None of it really matters.

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@edgarblythe,

Bertrand Russell wrote:

I ought to call myself an agnostic; but, for all practical purposes, I am an atheist.

That pretty well sums it up for me these days. And really I'm only atheist in the face of theism. So I guess I'm not so much an atheist, rather, that is how others might want to classify me.

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@thack45,

I can sort of see the agnostic position. But I couldn't be agnostic if I tried. I was hardwired from early childhood. Nothing I have experienced or read about has been able to dislodge any of it because it's who I am.

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@thack45,

In 1967 or 68 I was commuting between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Bertrand Russell's autobiography was still pretty new. I was reading my copy of it when an older man with a heavy black beard leaned his head between me and the page I was reading. He looked saddened, shook his head and resumed minding his business. I took it in stride and read on.

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@edgarblythe,

Quote:

But I couldn't be agnostic if I tried.

https://preview.redd.it/vaalncufnjz11.jpg?auto=webp&s=403ccd053a337fa7de8abec1c7001403cd77cab0

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@ascribbler,

See, that's an opinion you are allowed to have.

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What sets my determination in these discussions is that people insist an atheist has no right to be a real atheist. As I said earlier, I don't even need a reason to be one. Like Topsy, I just growed.

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@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

I’m an agnostic so I’m being bold by my self-inflicted spouting. I can’t know what is unknowable. I’m going to die eventually but seriously doubt I’ll ‘know’ anything after that because I’ll be busy being dead. After all, at that point I’ll be dead and without a body. What will be left to have any impact without a body is unknown. Electrical impulses without any cohesion. Hmmmm!?

I refuse all the handwringing and “god-botherers”. Not my cup of tea. Only trouble I see is Agnostic and Atheists have no holidays…yet!

Excellent post, Ragman.

Edgar seems to think that atheists are put upon by non-atheists...and that "people" insist that "an atheist has no right to be a real atheist."

For the most part, that is preposterous. Most people have no trouble with people calling themselves atheists. I certainly have no problem with that.

The trouble begins when someone INSISTS there are no gods. That is appreciably NO DIFFERENT from someone who INSISTS there IS A GOD.

Edgar gets all upset when I call him on this. And for the most part, he is not willing to discuss the issue with me...mostly because I suspect he sees the logic of my position.

I will never stop challenging people who claim "there are no gods"...just as I will never stop challenging people who claim "there is a GOD."

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Even Frank and his guesses can post here.

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I remember when I was a little kid and finally accepted the arguments against the existence of Santa Claus. It didn't take me long to apply the same reasoning to the "God" story. But I maintained faith in the Easter rabbit for a while longer – those brightly colored eggs were solid evidence of its existence!

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@hightor,

What about the tooth fairy? Smile

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@edgarblythe,

You mean that's a fraud too???

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@hightor,

hightor wrote:

I remember when I was a little kid and finally accepted the arguments against the existence of Santa Claus. It didn't take me long to apply the same reasoning to the "God" story. But I maintained faith in the Easter rabbit for a while longer – those brightly colored eggs were solid evidence of its existence!

Are you also asserting that there are no gods, Hightor?

If you are, you, as with Edgar, are merely asserting a guess...just like our currently militant theists are asserting their guesses that a GOD exists.

Here is my position (posted several times already). Please tell me what you see objectionable or illogical about it...and which part you see to be a guess:

I do not know if any GOD (or gods) exist or not;
I see no reason to suspect that gods cannot exist…that the existence of a GOD or gods is impossible;
I see no reason to suspect that at least one GOD must exist...that the existence of at least one GOD is needed to explain existence;
I do not see enough unambiguous evidence upon which to base a meaningful guess in either direction on whether any gods exist or not...so I don't.

(When I use the word "GOD or gods" here, I mean "The entity (or entities) responsible for the creation of what we humans call 'the physical universe'...IF SUCH AN ENTITY OR ENTITIES ACTUALLY EXIST.)

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@hightor,

WE never believed in Santa Claus because we could easily see the neighbor kids with the piles of loot compared with our five and dime ****. We watched our Mom color the eggs. I was jaded by the time we got to the tooth fairy.

1 Reply

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