Big Bang?

[Rcfchess at aol.com]

Wrong.
What you're describing as an atheist is an agnostic. An atheist does NOT  
believe in any god. 
That's what the "A" is for: it equals "not". 
However, there are various attitudes which one may have; not all atheists  
would say that believing in God was idiotic. Some merely say that there's no  
evidence, period, and therefore there's no reason to believe. Or that it's  
unscientific. Or illogical. Or that there's evidence to the contrary (e.g., the  
existence of evil, or George Bush...wait, that's the same thing...). Some,  
granted, do deride theists as being idiotic; but certainly not all. And some  
atheists sort of hover on the brink of being agnostics, saying something like  
"well, at this point I don't believe." Agnostics are more decidely  
middle-of-the-road, i.e., "I'm not saying one way or the other. I'm not saying  there IS a 
god and I'm not saying there ISN'T." Again, there may be different  reasons, 
and different attitudes, involved; it depends entirely on the  individual. But 
what you're doing is confusing atheists & agnostics. They're  not the same 
thing, though many people confuse the two.
 
RF
 
 
In a message dated 10/03/2005 9:57:36 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
malignd at yahoo.com writes:

<no gods. And basically that's  all I've been saying all
along, that people's beliefs should be  respected.>>

I don't think the two positions are  necessarily
parallel and reversible, although they can be made to
seem  so in argument.  A theist believes in God,
believes there is such an  entity--all-knowing creator,
listener to prayers, jolly old  soul--whatever.  It is
a particular belief about a particular  idea.

An atheist may not believe in such a thing, but may
count it  as one among many things he may or may not
believe exists, UFOs, Santa  Claus, unicorns, honest
politicians.  As such, there is no polar  opposition,
specifically, to God.  That argument is made  without
reflection by believers because (I think) they cannot
imagine  that one might simply disregard the entire
notion of God as too absurd to  waste time on.  They
insist, instead that there is a falling away from  the
Godhead, or the bold and active taking of a stance
against.   Etc.  That need not be the case.  Dismissing
the notion of God as  primitive and idiotic is not
equivalent to Belief There Is No God and not  the
negative mirror image of a Belief in  God.




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