No True Atheist would disbelieve in God without claiming they could prove that God doesnt exist! Also No True Atheist has their porridge with sugar on it, either. As atheists, we hear that sort of nonsense a lot. Almost always, of course, we hear it from theists who are telling us that, as theists, they get to tell us atheists what we really think. Its an attempt, at its base, to force atheists to either do the impossible, and carry the burden of proof to falsify an undefined, untestable, unfalsifiable entity. Otherwise, according to the theists, we have to be mere agnostics. Which means, of course, that we can only kick our feet in the dust and mutter gee gosh darn, I reckon I aint got no idea., and then call it a day. Yeah... the only real atheists are those who can falsify falsifiable entities. Youre certainly being intellectually honest there, theists. Of course, the self-serving theist definition of atheism, other than fallaciously attempting to Shift the Burden of Proof, quite literally defines atheists out of existence. Sure, I can falsify certain God-claims if theyre clearly defined (almost none are). But there are thousands upon thousands of God-claims, and an infinite number of potentially claimed Gods. Learning about them all, let alone falsifying them all, would be physically impossible. As such, atheists cannot exist (at least under theist logic) Its just another bit of theist bullying, just more of the myopia of the privileged. Its an attempt to force us to retreat, to stop pointing out that they have no evidence, to stop pointing out that claims without evidence should be rejected until they falsify the null hypothesis. They want us back in the closet, using the safe label of agnostic. It creates a world where there are only theists, and witless schmucks who just arent convinced by theism. No. We lack belief because you have provided zero empirical evidence, ever. We dont believe in your God the exact same way that we dont believe in pixies, or crystal healing, or aura reading, or... Your God-claims, no matter how emotionally meaningful for you, are no different to us than pixy-claims. And your God-claims will. get no special treatment. I dont have to search every square mile of woods in order to falsify Bigfoot. I dont need to survey every square inch of the Earth to conclusively verify that pixies dont exist. I dont have to learn about every religion and falsify them. I dont have to learn about *any* religion and falsify it. The simple fact is that those who claim a position is true, have the burden of proof. If they cannot carry that burden, I have no more reason to even listen to their claims, than Id have a reason to listen to any other evidence-free fantasies. I have no belief in God, at all. Ive never heard an argument for any claimed God that wasnt fallacious from start to finish. That makes me an atheist, regardless of what words you throw at me. And if you try to define who I am regardless of what I say, if you deliberately ignore how members of the atheist community overwhelming self-identify and define ourselves, then youve already shown us that youre not interested in discussion or an exchange of ideas, youre interested in trying to browbeat us into silence with your sloppy faith used as a cudgel. Shut up. Dont challenge our claims. You can only be an atheist if you can falsify something thats unfalsifiable, they announce. And if you cant falsify the unfalsifiable, well, I guess the Burden of Proof just got Shifted, and now theism is the default. What luck. But, atheists, dont make any waves for religion. Just shrug, say you dont know, then shut up and move on. Hows that workin out for em, eh? Were not going back into the closet. D.J.S.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 19:54:43 +0000
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