Hi Lee, I'll try my best...
The theist makes a positive assertion about the existence of God. An atheist is someone who does not accept the theist's claim; thus they are an "a"-theist. Atheism is therefore only the absence of that theistic belief. An atheist does not claim to know that God does not exist, only that the arguments presented in favour, thus far, are insufficient hold such a belief. Positively asserting that "there is no God" is further than any sensible atheist would go. An "in joke" that demonstrates this very well is the chapter of Richard Dawkin's 'The God Delusion' entitled 'Why There Almost Certainly Is No God'. I could well believe that the nuances of this were lost on some people, but there's no semantic word fuckery going on; this is really what atheism is. What you continually describe, I think, is some form of escalated "strong atheism" or obnoxious forum trolling. I've started to wonder whether this particular kind of atheism only exists on Internet forums to antagonise theists (see Chazwin's posts). In a sensible discussion I don't know any atheist who would support such a position, hence I say your assertions about atheism lead you only to a strawman. Look at the atheists you chat with here Mind's Eye; do I, Chris, Fran, or anyone else, claim "there is no God"? Ian --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
