philosophy, semanticsWhat’s the major feature of the atheist’s belief system except that they “believe” there is no god?
The word believe was taken in quotes in order to stress that any your opinion is some kind of belief. Therefore, an argument that someone believes something is true, especially such vague something as the absence of god, is weak.
There are no features to an atheist’s belief system, other than the lack of belief in a any gods. Atheism can’t really be called a belief system, just like “not collecting stamps” can’t be called a hobby. Atheism does not have an opinion on what is right or wrong, for example. However, many atheists call themselves Freethinkers or Secular Humanists, among other things. Freethought and Secular Humanism are philosophies. They do include opinions about morals and behavior. The term belief system, for many people, often means “belief in a god” which would not fit atheism. This does not mean that atheists do not believe in anything; it just means that gods are not any of the things they do believe in.
There is no standard “atheist belief system”.
The only thing that all atheists share is the lack of belief in any gods.
A lack of belief.
Or rather a lack of faith. Above being an atheist I consider myself a skeptic. Atheism is just one way in which my skepticism manifests itself. I choose to value evidence over faith.
Many people came to atheism through many different channels, but you’ll find that evidence over faith is a common thread.
There is no God. Period. Athiest literally means “Someone who doesn’t believe in God(s)”
I don’t count myself solely as an athiest, nor do I identify myself as just an athiest when people ask. I class myself as a rationalist and that being athiest is a part of that rationalism; ie. I can find no rational argument supporting the belief in the existence of an afterlife, god etc.
Rationalist’s argue that there is probably no god, afterlife etc. and that, as science proves more and more, the statistical likelyhood of any theist arguement diminishes as each is shot to pieces with logic.
One of the fundamental arguements of science is “The absence of proof is not proof of absence” and this can equally be applied to the search for alien intelligence in the universe, or the existence of some form of deity. The difference is that most will not accept the proof of alien intelligence elsewhere in the universe until we find it, but they will accept the theistic arguement without proof. I will not.
All atheists share a lack of belief in God, but this often isn’t among their most important beliefs. There’s no one philosophy that unifies all atheists.
The only feature atheists have in common is not believing in gods. As far as replacing god with something, I would ask, what have you replaced Santa Claus with? There is no reason to “replace” gods that don’t exist.
I think that atheists generally come to non-belief because of the complete lack of evidence for anything supernatural but other than that there is not a lot in common.
Atheism is not a belief system, any more than bald is a hair color or “not-collecting stamps” is a hobby.
However, I would guess that it is common among atheists that they have seen no evidence indicating the need for the concept of God… certainly none validating the claimed existence of specific gods or goddesses.
Russell’s Teapot, I would say.
I won’t repeat what has already been said, but as an atheist, I also believe in science as a correct methodology for acquiring knowledge and in fact the only valid one. Or as Bertrand Russell put it:”Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.”
This is a belief that is not necessarily shared by all atheists. For instance, someone who claims to have special powers while there is no scientific proof, but appeals to intuition or something else outside science to support his claims, might be an atheist without contradiction. I suspect though that only a minority of this stack’s visitors belong to that category.
I don’t call myself an Atheist.
If you asked me if I believed in a deity, I’d say “not yet”. Why? I know of no evidence that suggests that one (or more) might exist. If you ask me if I believe that there may have been a deity at some point in the past, I’ll say “I don’t know, how could I?”.
If you say to me that my ‘creator’ is strongly evidenced by my creativity, I’ll pass along your compliment to my parents.
While I do take many issues with organized religions, I’m happy that some people find happiness and support within them. They aren’t for me, and neither is antagonizing something or someone else without a compelling and immediate need to do so.
I’m just a critical thinker who loves to work on problems. I can’t just accept things on ‘faith’, I need evidence that lack natural explanation.
While the word atheist does describe me, it does not describe me sufficiently. If you finally corner me into giving out some sort of adjective by saying “Well, then .. what are you??”, I’d probably just say “happy.”
What do you mean by “belief system” now? The scientific method? Probabilities? Are you sincerely asking or are you loading the question?
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