Negative atheism? (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, December 09, 2014, 17:27 (3637 days ago)

DAVID (under “Evidence for pattern development; mulling”): My intent upon being invited to this website was to challenge the concepts of atheism and agnosticism as negative approaches to the issue of "why is there anything", Leibniz famous question. I maintain there must be something as a cause [...] As a statement to everyone following this site: I know that atheists are totally negative in their approach, especially the vociferous ones like Coyne, Dawkins, Stenger, Myers, Dennett, etc. Agnostics claim to be trying to figure it out. And I think they can be honestly trying, but I sense there is an underlying negativity in their thought pattern. -Much as I abhor militant atheism (just as I abhor religious fundamentalism), I think “totally negative in their approach” is a negative approach in itself. An atheist has made up his mind that there is no God, but that doesn't stop him from asking how we got here, or why there is something. Theists have also made up their minds, but instead of asking why there is something, they may ask how God created the something we have. Agnostics may have made up their minds that they can never know whether there is or isn't a god, but they can still try to find out why there is something. We are constantly told that the vast majority of people working in the sciences are atheists or agnostics. Why is it negative for them to assume that there is a material explanation which might possibly be found, and positive for their theistic colleagues to assume some form of conscious designer which we can't examine through the microscope or telescope? Nobody knows the answers, but the one brand of seeker seems to me no more and no less negative than the other.
 
************-I've been unable to get onto the website for two days, but Neil has finally solved the problem. I shall need time now to digest the various posts, and in particular your stimulating questionnaire, for which many thanks!