Letters to the Editor
Taliesan
Published Letters: 942 Editor's Choice: 19
-
Anonymous
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yeah I know. The thing of it is, atheism isn't about knowing there isn't a god - its about not believing there is a god.
While some atheists believe that there isn't a god, I am amongst those who simply feel it is terribly unlikely and I am not going to accept that there is a god without some sort of proof.
I suppose the main difference between agnostic belief and atheist belief is simply a matter of balance of improbabilities.
I feel the balance is so far against god's existance as to make it on a par with, to quote Dawkins "Fairies at the bottom of the garden" while an agnostic tends to be a bit less certain about it.
That said, whatever a person's belief systems are, they shouldn't feel afraid to state them.
-
jayackroyd
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The thing of it is, even if there is a god, it wouldn't be supernatural. It would be as natural a phenomenon as your average toad.
The only way I can see for something to really qualify for "super-natural" would be for it to not exist. Otherwise it would just be an unexplained natural phenomenon.
-
Ohmygoodness
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mirriam Webster:
1 a: allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty b (1): fidelity to one's promises (2): sincerity of intentions
We can ignore that in this context...
2 a (1): belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2): belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1): firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2): complete trust
That is the most complete definition really. Particularly the firm belief without proof. If it is proved, it isn't faith it is knowledge.
and 3 just for completeness...
3: something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
-
John Anderson
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One thing I respect the fundementalists for, is this:
They don't buy that crap about alternate magisteria any more then I do. Whether gods exist or not is a scientific question, to which there is a definite answer.
While we do not have the full data to discover the answer yet that in and of itself does not mean that we will never have that data, nor that such proof is impossible.
And frankly, in the case of some gods (Such as the Christian one) the bar required to disprove them seens to get set higher and higher every time such evidence comes along.
I mean even New Testament includes issues such as a census which makes absolutely no logical sense (Jesus' father had to go back to the land of his ancestors to fill out a form?) and Jesus' death, well do you think the Romans were going to let the most popular rebel they caught go to celebrate a festival?
-
mimi gray
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Atheism is, like science, based upon the assumption of ignorance. We don't know and therefore we strive to find out - and generally that means that yes, we try to find evidence for things because, without evidence whatever we find out is meaningless.
Throwing ones hands up and proclaiming a god of gaps, hasn't exactly served manking well in the past after all, and without evidence, well, Flying Spagetti Monster anybody?
-
mimi gray
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are lots of things which were unknowable once. The shape of the earth for example, the earth's place in the solar system. There was a time at which full evidence couldn't be gathered, we hadn't figured out how yet.
Plenty of things still seem that way.
That doesn't actually make them unknowable, and while there might be a limit in some distant star spanning empire to what we can know, well we haven't met that limit yet.
The reason why knowledge isn't treat as being finite is because, if it is beyond our ability to know, we don't know about it.
Also, "I don't know" is a perfectly respectable answer to a question. While I am pretty sure the Christian God doesn't exist, that doesn't make me an infinite source of knowledge, it just means I have read the Bible and contrasted it to what I know of humanity, Roman history and the solar system.
There could well be a god out there, or something we would term a god, complete with a good explanaition of where it comes from - but there is no evidence pointing to that being existing, and the evidence we have seems to point the other way, so I operate under the assumption it doesn't.
-
Mike Sulzer
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My point is that it is very dangerous to claim something is unknowable, and while we can always go around asking each other things like "Why do griphons burn green", in terms of real meaningful questions - unknowable isn't a permanent condition.
-
11:26 AM Anonymous, yes I have. Have you?
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]“Now at the feast he used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested. The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection. The crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them. Pilate answered them, saying, ‘Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead. Answering again, Pilate said to them, ‘Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?’ They shouted back, ‘Crucify Him!’ But Pilate said to them, ‘Why? What evil has He done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify Him!’ Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and, after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.”