Negative atheism? (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Wednesday, December 17, 2014, 09:14 (3629 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID ..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. [/i]
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>DHW: 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.
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I think the issue is in how the questions are framed. -A theist can examine purely how something was done and believe that God chose to do it that way regardless of the results. -An Agnostic can believe or disbelieve whatever they choose, and the question of whether or not there is a God is of little importance.-An Atheist, however, has to disprove the existence of God AND prove that everything had to be possible WITHOUT God. -Atheist, by definition, have to prove a negative.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.