Think of it this way.
If there truly was no god. What would the central thesis of an Atheist sound like?
Or rather. What is the essential piece in the Atheist theory? what does the entire belief structure revolve around?
"God."
Quoting: PigsInSpace Ooh - I see it now: God is real, because He's what they don't believe in!
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 8788578 Think of it as an exercise in logic. Whether or not God is real or not makes no difference, because as an Atheist, your entire belief structure revolves around "God".. God is essential to being an Atheist.
Quoting: PigsInSpace The logic fall short. If everyone believed the same as atheists then there would be no reason for the word 'atheism' to even exist. It would just be 'the way'. So you would have people who don't believe in 'God' and no designation by which to label them, so your logic would not apply to that situation. The only reason 'atheism' is a known term is because it lies in opposition to other existing belief systems and schools of thought.
By your logic how could you ever oppose something that you do not believe in without acknowledging the concept/idea in communication with those who do?
If I tell you Santa Claus is real, do you have to believe in Santa Claus to be able to tell me that you feel he is not real? If you tell me that Santa Claus is not real can I accuse you of believing in something you feel does not exist merely because you acknowledged the concept in the act of refuting it?
I'm not an atheist either, but your thread makes for interesting discussion. : )
P.S. I think most atheists are just oppossed to the organized religions' depictions of 'God' that have been forced upon them by society. They got a bad taste in their mouth and have been turned off from the concept altogether. I believe if you/we offered different conceptualizations or depictions of what a higher power might actually represent, there would be a contingent of 'atheists' who would reconsider their 'belief system'. The problem is this doesn't happen and the common depictions of 'God' are nothing more than humans projecting human qualities & duality onto a conceptualization of a higher power/authority - which fails to acknowledge that a higher power by definition would transcend that which is familiar to us in this physical reality we live in.
Quoting: ANHEDONIC "The logic fall short. If everyone believed the same as atheists then there would be no reason for the word 'atheism' to even exist. It would just be 'the way'."
That is an interesting statement because it works inversely in my favor as well. Let me make it clear that I am not saying one side is right and one is not, I am just deconstructing the beliefs into their constituents and seeing which belief structures need certain elements? When you deconstruct these beliefs into ingredients, both sides have god in the mix. I think it's ironic more than anything else.
I don't think its possible to use hypothetical situations in this discussion, how can that be logical where reality does not reflect it? I am referring to when you described about Atheism being "the way"...In this case, it is impossible to provide hypothetical examples to counter my point because we are not living in those realities and cannot test them. Atheism is known because of the non belief in god and we can test this. That's what made it famous. Everything else is a footnote.
"By your logic how could you ever oppose something that you do not believe in without acknowledging the concept/idea in communication with those who do? "
Right, good question. Because we are discussing god. If we were discussing mangos or apples, you could acknowledge them because they are tangible. Certain ideologies we may not believe in or agree with exist, some that we oppose.
As far as Santa is concerned I do not believe he exists but I am forced to acknowledge him because others do. That's as simple as it gets for me in that regard. My point about Atheism is that it cannot exist without god.. Christmas can exist without Santa though.
"I'm not an atheist either, but your thread makes for interesting discussion. : )"
Agreed. It's a fun idea to discuss. Thanks for your time, some very good and challenging points. : )