There are bad as well as good reasons for deciding that one is, or that one should be, an atheist, and I suspect the bad reasons may be more influential. The worst reason for not believing in God (though the least obviously bad), is that there is no evidence for His existence. This is a bad reason for atheism because no-one can agree what would count as evidence. Miracles, scriptures, the testimony of priests and prophets etc, can all be contested on empirical grounds: but for some people the fact that we communicate intelligibly with one another, or that the world is ordered, or even that there is something rather than nothing, is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that there is a Creator who not only made the world but also made it habitable by and intelligible to us. Therefore the appeal to evidence, or lack of it, will always be inconclusive.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
An atheist on atheism
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Aw.. Too bad it's a subscription only article. I really wanted to see if this guy had any "good" arguments for being an atheist.
ReplyDeleteIs this going toward a kind of "presuppositional" apologetic for atheism?
ReplyDeleteOne of the bloggers at Uncommon Descent did a post on this article:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/professor-raymond-tallis-on-good-and-bad-arguments-for-atheism/
Without evidence there is no reason TO believe, so this point is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteYou missed the point, which illustrates your lack of reason. But thanks for the object lesson.
ReplyDeleterrlane,
ReplyDeleteDo you believe that your family and friends exist apart from your sensory experiences...is there any evidence for that which doesn't take a circular form?