• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Does water have a taste? Is atheism a religion?

Does water have a taste?

  • Yes

    Votes: 17 68.0%
  • No

    Votes: 8 32.0%

  • Total voters
    25
Can you explain the 'atheist' belief concerning the nature of the universe? What about the fundamental set of beliefs and practices of atheism? How does show 'devotion' to atheism? You're grasping at straws.

Absolutely. Atheism is the lack of belief in god(s), nothing more. It says nothing about the nature of the universe or anything else and there certainly are no practices of atheism. It's not just grasping at straws, it's a distinct lack of understanding of what atheism is.
 
If claiming that disbelief is in fact a belief then one could claim that no taste is in fact a taste of its own. So, does water have a taste?

Fun thread!

Atheism is a religion - depending on the definition of the word you use. A religion doesn't have to have a GOD being the center of it in order for it to be a belief of how we came to exist and so forth.
 
what is pure water? yes, it does have a taste. minerals.

Laboratory quality distilled water, you know like out of your tap. :roll:
 
Incorrect. In each of those things you are speaking about a SPECIFIC thing...Santa Claus, Toothfairies, etc. Specific individual things can be directly proven. For example, with a toothfairy we can note that there's never been a case of a tooth legitimately vanishing from under a pillow and having money. We can trace back likely specifically to the original creations of it as a fake thing, etc.

And we can note that there's never been a legitimate case of a god existing either. Zero objective evidence = zero belief.

However, a belief that "supernatural beings do not exist" as a broad thing would be a belief. There ARE supernatural instances and issues that haven't been fully explained away or unquestionably proven false, however having faith that they're all explainable due to natural law is still a belief. Its you believing something despite there being no concrete definitive answers.

Who says "supernatural beings do not exist"? There's no evidence for them, therefore we do not believe in them. The same goes for fairies, unicorns, Santa Claus and all the other mythical nonsense man has made up. Just what are these supernatural instances that haven't been explained away? I can't think of any. There are *CLAIMS* of supernatural instances, but they've never been supported with evidence and thus, at best, we can only say "we don't know" and go on about our business.

Yes it does, its the belief that there is no possible way anything can exist outside of natural laws. Its the belief that the universe is completely lawful, without any elements of chaos that potentially can act outside of natural law and thus are supernatural. It is the belief that even though there are NUMEROUS things we have absolutely no way to distinctly prove beyond a reasonable doubt that those things are still natural and follow natural laws and can be explained through science even if we're not able to yet.

It's not the belief in anything. It's the lack of belief in god(s) based on the complete and utter lack of anything even remotely resembling objective evidence for their actual existence. Full stop. Anything else you want to tack on isn't atheism, it's something else, in this case, naturalism.

Arguing Athiesm isn't a religion is one thing, and I'd agree there. But it most certainly IS belief of faith. It is NOT the absence of belief. The closest to that is an agnostic. Athiests fully believe that a diety or the supernatural simply is impossible and untrue. That is a belief. Agnostics don't believe that there is or isn't something supernatural, they just think its unknowable so don't bother themselves with it either way. THAT is the closest to an absense of belief, not athiesm. Placing ones firm ground in a particular unknown is faith.

Hardly, there's no belief or faith whatsoever involved. It's a matter of being entirely unconvinced of the claims of theists, nothing more. Want to convince us? Come up with evidence.
 
Absolutely. Atheism is the lack of belief in god(s), nothing more. It says nothing about the nature of the universe or anything else and there certainly are no practices of atheism. It's not just grasping at straws, it's a distinct lack of understanding of what atheism is.

Why do atheists make such a big deal out of religion? Why dont' they just ignore it?
 
See, I think the funny thing here is that the athiests, especially the militant types, have so insulted, derided, and chastised the notion of "belief" that its gotten to the point that they can't dare allow themselves to be considered a belief even though they are because then that would apply their insults to themselves. They've attempted to contort and twist a word so much in the process of their non-stop evangelizing of the horrors and evils and idiocy and bigotry and lunacy and vileness of that horrible notion of "religion" and "belief" that they didn't stop to think that "belief" is a rather wide ranging word.

Because it isn't a belief, it doesn't fit the definition of belief. It's very simple. a-without, theos-belief in god(s). Do the Greek. What you're really looking for is anti-theists, not atheists.
 
Why do atheists make such a big deal out of religion? Why dont' they just ignore it?

Because of laws, bans, etc that are based soley on someone's religion. We *can't* ignore religion because the religious won't LET us. Some want it to permeate every aspect of our lives. Some want things like pre-marital sex banned again because it's against their religious values. I have no issue with "live and let live", it's the "other side" that has issues with that. And because of that, we cannot just ignore it.
 
Why do atheists make such a big deal out of religion? Why dont' they just ignore it?

Because it doesn't ignore them. Like it or not, we're living in a big theistic world and theists don't tend to keep it to themselves. They try to force it into the schools, into the political sphere, into the society at large. Want to be left alone? Leave everyone else alone! Until then, atheists have just as much right to speak out as anyone else does, and in case you haven't been paying attention, atheism is growing at a very, very fast rate.
 
Faith that God does not exist. It requires faith to deny that God exists without any proof.

Why disprove something unproveable?
I'm sorry, you have to prove the purple dragon exists. We don't have to prove that it doesn't.
 
Ok, so do you feel that valid knowledge can come from non-rational sources?

I'm trying to comprehend what a "non-rational source" would be.

Your sentence is littered with words that have subjective definitions. "feel", "valid", "knowledge", "non-rational". If you're asking if I think "valid knowledge" can come from an invisible man whispering in your ear, then no... not valid to me. Perhaps it's valid to you.
 
But agnosticism and atheism are not mutually exclusive, there are agnostic atheists, and there are gnostic atheists.

In fact, *EVERYONE* is both theist/atheist *AND* gnostic/agnostic. You cannot have one without the other because they both deal with entirely different things. One deals with belief, do you believe in god(s) or not. The other deals with the nature of knowledge, can you know anything about god(s) or not. Like it or not, every single person on the planet capable of thinking holds one of both positions.
 
Why disprove something unproveable?
I'm sorry, you have to prove the purple dragon exists. We don't have to prove that it doesn't.

God is provable through science. Science demands a creator and evident through our scientific laws. We can't physically put God in a test tube, but we know He exists.
 
Faith that God does not exist. It requires faith to deny that God exists without any proof.

Faith that God does not exist? I do not take "God's" existence into consideration when exploring the world around me. Example, I see a rabbit and I 'believe' God didn't create it. I know that rabbit is the offspring of two other rabbits. So I know 'God' didn't create it. You on the other hand see a rabbit and regardless of all the evidence showing you that rabbits are a mamalian species which procreate, you think that the rabbit was created by a god. So exatcly what purpose does saying that I have 'faith' in the non-existence of something when I know, due to evidence, that it doesn't exist? Do I also have faith in the non-existence of other things? Do you have 'faith' in the non-existence of furry beasts under your bed?
 
God is provable through science. Science demands a creator and evident through our scientific laws. We can't physically put God in a test tube, but we know He exists.

If the existence of a god/dess were provable through science, it would have been proven through science. Science hardly "demands a creator". And "we" certainly do not know it exists. "We" know nothing of the sort.
 
God is provable through science. We can't physically put God in a test tube, but we know He exists.

If God was provable through science then God could actually be physically put in a test tube.
 
Faith that God does not exist? I do not take "God's" existence into consideration when exploring the world around me. Example, I see a rabbit and I 'believe' God didn't create it. I know that rabbit is the offspring of two other rabbits. So I know 'God' didn't create it. You on the other hand see a rabbit and regardless of all the evidence showing you that rabbits are a mamalian species which procreate, you think that the rabbit was created by a god. So exatcly what purpose does saying that I have 'faith' in the non-existence of something when I know, due to evidence, that it doesn't exist? Do I also have faith in the non-existence of other things? Do you have 'faith' in the non-existence of furry beasts under your bed?

Don't put words in my own mouth. I don't believe that God supernaturally crafted every rabbit and I know it's the result of sexual reproduction. I believe the first animals were created by God and that all in existence was created by God. One must have faith that the evidence for God is either incorrect by clinging to pseudoscience and unproven theories or by denying what we know about scientific laws. If you look at nature as a whole it would scream for a creator. People must have faith that God does not exist, because by faith they reject the proofs and things that suggest a creator.

If God was provable through science then God could actually be physically put in a test tube.

We can prove gravity though science, but we can't put gravity in a test tube.
 
God is provable through science. Science demands a creator and evident through our scientific laws. We can't physically put God in a test tube, but we know He exists.

Cite evidence.
 
Oh? What other correct ways are there to view the world?

That's irrelevant because it has nothing to do with atheism. You're now off talking about something entirely different.
 
God is provable through science. Science demands a creator and evident through our scientific laws. We can't physically put God in a test tube, but we know He exists.

Fundamentally this is an incorrect statement as science relies on measurement to make proof. Gods by their definitions are immeasurable and thus science cannot speak of them.
 
I see evidence of evolution. That it happens is indisputable.
The big bang theory... meh.
I lack belief in any god or goddess. They may well exist, but until they have given me a reason to believe, I will continue to lack belief.

I think evolution exists, but on a time frame too slow for much progress. We are still basically the same stupid animals we were a thousand years ago. Technology has evolved far faster than our puny selves can handle it.
Big Bang Theory, it is on CBS, thursday nights, and is very funny..real or not.
Gods, those are inventions of man in his own image, a guide post for our lives.
Goddesses, however are all too real, nearly every woman thinks she is one...
 
Cite evidence.

I would say it's evidence that we have scientific laws and that our universe governs in a designed and orderly fashion. But to go even further back. We know that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed. It's scientific law that this is true. Something had to create matter and energy that was beyond science (God). To believe that there is no God, one must have faith that something beyond science did not create all that exists. It also means someone must by faith, believe that something against what we know about science for some reason somehow created everything through an unknown and unproven method. For me it would make sense that our universe was created by a designer as it is orderly and is governed by scientific laws. There must have been a will and a reason for its creation as I don't believe that it could have happened without a will and for no reason. My belief indirectly supports God's existence through science. Gleaning from what we know, something supernatural must have created matter and all that exists within our universe.
 
Back
Top Bottom