Irrational Atheism

[cbayer]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/10/a-leap-of-atheist-faith/381353/

Not believing in God isn't always based on reasoned arguments—and that's okay.

CRISPIN SARTWELL
OCT 11 2014, 12:28 PM ET

?ndagfo
Tuncay/Flickr

Religious beliefs are remarkably various. But sometimes it can seem that there is only one way to be an atheist: asserting, on the basis of reasoned argument, that belief in God is irrational. The aging "new atheists"—Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett, for example—pit reason against faith, science against superstition, and declare for reason and science.

It pictures the universe as a natural system, a system not guided by intelligent design and not traversed by spirits; a universe that can be explained by science, because it consists of material objects operating according to physical laws. In this sense, atheism embodies a whole picture of the world, offering explanations about its most general organization to the character of individual events.

Ironically, this is similar to the totalizing worldview of religion—neither can be shown to be true or false by science, or indeed by any rational technique. Whether theistic or atheistic, they are all matters of faith, stances taken up by tiny creatures in an infinitely rich environment.

I'm an atheist because I think of the universe as a natural, material system. I think of it, on the basis of my own extremely limited experience, as an infinitely replete but morally indifferent thing. It isn't bent on saving me, or damning me: It just is. I find comfort in that, as well as pain; wonder as well as loathing. That's my experience, and my atheism is a reflection of that experience. But it's not an argument; it's an interpretation.

more at link

[Fumesucker]

1. Eh, Occam's razor says as complicated as needed but no more so

So far as we can tell the natural world is sufficient to explain the phenomena we have so far encountered, adding gods, spirits, boojums and snarks only needlessly complicates things.

At some point god may or may not unambiguously reveal him/her/itself in the gaps or perhaps some other way but that has not evidently yet happened.

[cbayer]

3. I found the point of this to be more along the lines

that there are as many reasons for one being an atheists as there are atheists.

People are cut of very different cloth when it comes to religion, and that keeps life interesting, imo.

[ZombieHorde]

2. I think the existence of country music proves there is no god.

Ironically though, I think the fact that Kristen Stewart continues to find high-paying acting gigs proves there is a devil.

Strange universe.

[cbayer]

4. Lol. I think the existence of country music just shows how diverse humans are.

It is indeed a strange and fascinating universe.

[Gelliebeans]

6. Lmao. N/T

[rug]

7. How do you explain this?

It even has steel guitar.

[ZombieHorde]

8. I could only handle the first four seconds.

The music was just too scary for me.

[rug]

9. I understand. Here are just the lyrics.

A world filled with wonder, a cold, fathomless sky
A man's life so meager, he can but wonder why
He cries out to Heaven its truth to reveal
The answer: only silence, for God isn't real.

Go ask the starving millions under Stalin's cruel reign
Go ask the child with cancer who eases her pain
Then go to your churches, if that's how you feel
But don't ask me to follow, for God isn't real.

He forms in his image a weak and foolish man
Speaks to him in symbols that few understand
For a life of devotion, the death blow he deals
We'd owe Him only hatred, but God isn't real.

Go tell the executioner of the power he can't defy
Go tell his shackled victim of the mercy on high...
Then go to your churches, go beg, pray, and kneel,
But don't ask me to follow, for God isn't real.

No, no matter how He should be, God isn't real.

Read them in George Jones' voice.

[ZombieHorde]

10. After reading the lyrics, I watched about a minute of the video,

which is pretty good for me. I have no idea what to think of it, which is pretty cool. I don't care for the music, but I like that it made go "huh?"

[Warren Stupidity]

5. "Ironically, this is similar to the totalizing worldview of religion" oh horseshit.

First of all atheism doesn't say anything about the universe other than a disbelief that gods abound either in or out of it. Secondly, it is physics, astrophysics, cosmology that describes a natural universe that simply doesn't require a deity. Gods are no longer explanatory, and that is not because ATHEISTS it is because our understanding of the universe has made the explanatory myths of pre-modern civilization ludicrously obsolete.

[edhopper]

11. Thanks for the rational response

I was just going to reply 'BULLSHIT'.

[skepticscott]

12. Another poor faitheist

Setting up lame straw men and trying to make a name for their obscure little selves by trying to denigrate atheists who actually have something worthwhile to say.

Just once, I'd love to see the faitheists on this board bother to post an article by someone who is actually capable of exercising real intelligence, rather than ignoring the myriad flaws in their argument simply because their agenda is being serviced.