• LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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    5 days ago

    How is it any different than claiming with near certainty that leprechauns aren’t real?

    I’m nearly 100% certain leprechauns aren’t real. Is my disbelief in leprechauns a religious belief? I similarly don’t believe in the Greek or Roman or Egyptian gods. Is that a religious belief, too?

    The Christian god is a positive claim, and my near 100% certainty it’s not real is not a ‘belief’ unless you’re operating from a baseline that assumes it’s true, which is not how anything works. Strong atheism is a strong unwillingness to believe anything for which there isn’t evidence. That’s the opposite of faith – faith being the belief in things without evidence.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      5 days ago

      The only enlightened path for a Real Objective Thinker is to accept that anything might exist! If not you’re just engaging in the same mystical thinking as those people who believe sky-daddy is all powerful and all good, but is just working in mysterious ways all those times good people need help and nothing happens. It’s exactly the same you hypocrite. /s

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Look, I’m just going by the classification system in the Wikipedia article I cited. I didn’t even slightly imply any of the bullshit you just tried to ascribe to me.

    • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I find the issue with hardcore atheism is the certainy of a lack of God in a scientific sense instead of an philosophical sense. Also the organization, dogma, and a sense of hierarchy in regards to authorities on atheism.

      That being said the amount of atheists who subscribe to the religion isn’t the root of all evil but false vs religion is the bane of all existence, is probably the same statically to jihadist and westboro baptist church

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        5 days ago

        Again, do you believe in leprechauns? How certain are you that mermaids don’t exist?

        How dogmatic are you in your lack of a belief in mermaids? Or fairies? How much are you bending to the will of anti-Tinkerbell propaganda?

        Do you hear how insane that sounds?

        eta: you said:

        Also the organization, dogma, and a sense of hierarchy in regards to authorities on atheism.

        What authorities on atheism? What dogma? What organisation? Do you mean the clubs such as this comment section? There’s no central group or organisation. Atheism is the opposite of that. Your answer makes me think you don’t understand atheism at all.

        If that’s the case, please ask me anything. I love answering questions. :)

        You also said:

        the amount of atheists who subscribe to the religion.

        I’m not going into the rest of what was obviously wrong in the bits I cut off, but I’ll just stop you right there, lol.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      How is it any different than claiming with near certainty that leprechauns aren’t real?

      Does Richard fucking Dawkins claim to be “near certain?”

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        5 days ago

        ?

        Sorry, not following you, I couldn’t actually care less what Richard fucking Dawkins thinks tbh.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          My comment was in the context of replying to https://lemmy.world/comment/14237089:

          Richard Dawkins is his own religion.


          Edit: also, funnily enough, it turns out that Dawkins does claim to be “near certain,” not “certain.” That was news to me, given his reputation!

          That’s relevant because it puts a finer point on just how fervent the belief needs to be to count as “strong atheism.”

          Source:

          In The God Delusion, Dawkins describes people for whom the probability of the existence of God is between “very high” and “very low” as “agnostic” and reserves the term “strong atheist” for those who claim to know there is no God. He categorizes himself as a “de facto atheist” but not a “strong atheist” on this scale.