Atheists Anonymous

Category: Atheism

  • A gnostic

    Is the existence of God knowable?

    What is the place of certainty in this matter?

    The agnostic says no, the existence of God is not neccesarily true (or untrue). They might not be comfortable with the idea that there is definitively no God (that is Atheism).

    Definition: a (without) gnosis (knowledge).

    I wonder how thin the space is between a theist (one who believes there is a God) and an agnostic (one who is unsure).

    Personally I’m suspicious of people who express the “unknowable” with certainty.

  • Telling

    Some people seem to think it is OK

    To tell me “there is no God”

    Or – supreme being/supernatural realm – whatever

    On what grounds?

  • Being

    Is any belief valid

    if it doesnt

    reflect

    how I live?

    Being an atheist = living as if there is no God.

    Is that OK

  • Evangelical Atheism

    I find it a bit odd to see how “evangelical” some atheists are. (evangelical – from the greek evangel means one who tells good news).

    Evangelical Christians are used as a popular metaphor for those who have closed minds and an enthusiastic desire to preach their beliefs. In some ways it is no surprise that the MAGA movement in USA espouses such labels. Blind as they may be to the irony of associating with the most socialist of movements – that advocate care for the poor and disenfranchised, whilst disenfranchising the poor.

    “Of course there is no God” – these sort of statements abound on social media. As if one were able to prove or support such a definitive statement.

    Proving something or someone doesn’t exist is a significant logical challenge, but atheists on social media and elsewhere are quite fond of this bald statement of what they consider fact. Makes me itch mentally!

    “Of course” is a statement commonly used as a prefix, intended to belittle or denegrate the person with variant views, without needing to substantiate the statement opposing their view.

    Of course – you cannot prove there is no God… 🙂

    Unless you are Oolon Colluphid… But then that might be a circular argument.

  • A-Theism

    Well, That About Wraps It Up For God

    This is a reference to a fictional book “Well, That About Wraps It Up For God ” mentioned in Douglas Adam’s humorous Sci Fi series of radio plays, books and so on.

    Arguments for the existence of God.

    Douglas Adams writes:

    Well, That About Wraps It Up For God is a book written by Oolon Colluphid. The book presents an argument against the existence of God. The argument turns on the amazing phenomenon of the Babel Fish, and the book is the last volume of Colluphid’s best-selling trilogy, having been preceded by Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes, and Who is this God Person Anyway?

    “The Babel fish is small, yellow, leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier, but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.

    "Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that something so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. "The argument goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing.' 'But, says Man, the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.' 'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and vanishes in a puff of logic. 'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing. "Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid from making a small fortune when he used it as the theme of his best-selling book, Well That About Wraps It Up For God. "Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."
    Douglas Adams – The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

    Not a good place to start maybe… God disappearing in a puff of logic? I think I’m more likely to do that.

    One thing that really annoys me is people making assumptions that belief that there is no God is logical. Really??