https://sixdayscience.com/2016/07/04/le ... e-atheist/


So if as a new atheist you've at one time or another used this idiotic mythical claim, please stop.

And please stop equivocating when someone asks you the direct question - ARE YOU AN ATHEIST?
That fallacious rhetorical tactic is getting really old.

What fallacious rhetorical tactic are you referring to?

Are you a theist?

I'm a philosophical agnostic/theist

How bout you?
You lack belief in deities.. much the same as a rock, or a tree, or a lizard would be, right?

Back to the poll, it indicates about 41% of scientists are non-believers. Sarah Salviander says that "is still rather high given that only 4% of the general U.S. population identifies that way..." Rather high??? I don't recall anyone quoting the 93% figure in the thread title, but 10X the general population is a huge difference.

The bottom line is there is a clear positive relationship between science education and atheism. Wouldn't you agree, ant? I mean you cannot really deny this correlation can you?

Yes I lack belief in deities, therefore I'm an atheist.

I'm not sure I get your point, you're saying a rock is an atheist, just like me?

https://www.google.com/search?client=sa ... definition



Don't equivocate now, are you a theist or not? What kind of God do you believe in?

Not sure if I want to dabble my toes in this ocean (or puddle, take your pick), it tends to make my head hurt. 93%, 41% or 4%, I am automatically leery of all surveys. I could go into my reasons, but that would require an entirely different thread. Suffice it to say, that only once in my life have I participated in what I consider a bona fide survey.

As to ant's question, "ARE YOU AN ATHEIST?" my answer is no, I am an agnostic. I do not know if there is a higher power, be it God, Allah, Odin, or Mumo-Jumbo. Nor do I believe we can know in this life And please, no quotations of scripture (from any religion, see above).

But I recognize the right or any person to his or her opinion.

Agnosticism is the honest and rational choice for new atheism and its equivocations.
Anything else is gross dishonesty and petty rhetoric.

You should list some deities, and I'd be happy to tell you if I believe in them or not.

This is a common new atheism fallacy - multiple representations of a thing exclude the existence of the thing itself.
It's typical shoddy new atheism logic spread by uncredentialed backwards philosophers that impress their imbecilic "logic" on naive sheeple

Well, no, my statement is actually agnostic. I can't say if I believe in God unless it is defined. It is impossible for anyone to profess belief or non belief in something without definitions. It is you who are hiding behind vague and imprecise semantics.

We usually assume that we're talking about the God of the Bible though, and I can say honestly I am an atheist with respect to this deity.

I favor the word "godless" now. It's just a simple statement that doesn't drag in what anyone may assume about an an apparently global term like atheism.

Richard Dawkins: "On a scale of seven, where one means I know he exists, and seven I know he doesn't, I call myself a six. That doesn't mean I'm absolutely confident, that I absolutely know, because I don't."

This is the position of the so-called "new atheists." We've been over this many times before. You've been waiting to argue with someone at level 7, but so far that's only your phantom opponent that you keep arguing with.

So is that the cowardly position, as you've stated before, or is it now the honest and rational one?

huh, interesting I thought the number would be higher.

Somebody should probably point out that the Pew polls discussed in the link in the original post are from 2009: http://www.pewforum.org/2009/11/05/scie ... nd-belief/

There appear to be issues with the way and how pollsters ask questions in polls and tend to give such low count for non-believers but, that may soon be changing ...

February 3, 2017

Global Plus: The nonreligious in the world today

Depending on how they are counted, the nonreligious today may be considered the world’s third largest ‘religion,’ trailing only Christianity and Islam.

http://www.theiarj.org/blog/2017/02/03/ ... rld-today/


By 2030, say projections, a third of Americans will have no religious preference
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/ob ... -religion/