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As an atheist, I have heard this several times. Each time by a theist. Has any atheist on the board had any experience with someone asking this question without the assumed idea that the "something" must be a God idea. I believe in a great deal of things in life but I don't purport to know why we are here and how we got here. I'm comfortable with NOT knowing the answers to those questions.
The answer would usually come back 'everyone must believe in something'. It is of course the old equivocation fallacy that theists so often use to try to make god - belief look something other than sheer fantasy. You all know how it works
'You believe that your car will start, that your house will not fall down etc..'
'Therefore my belief in fairies, leprechauns and the Loch Ness monster is just as valid.'
Obviously belief in verifiable fact is different from belief in unverified claims, even if the same word is used.
So Ok. I believe in what can be verified. I believe in the proven methods used to verify those facts. I even believe in the occurrence of empirically agreed human experiences such as NDe's unexplained healings and ecstatic feelings reached through meditation. I do not (yet) believe in the unverified claims about what they signify.
'Everyone believes in something' is therefore one of those over simple and actually false propositions (like Prove to me that God doesn't exist..with the unstated premise that, if you can't he must exist) which are designed to fool unprepared or unwary people into crediting faith - claims.
There's always Kevin Costner's statement of faith in "Bull Durham":
"Well, I believe in the soul, the c*ck, the pus*y, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days."
I have a favorite saying for those who throw that line at me. "I do believe in something, I firmly believe that your version of religion is mythology in new clothes."
As an atheist, I have heard this several times. Each time by a theist. Has any atheist on the board had any experience with someone asking this question without the assumed idea that the "something" must be a God idea. I believe in a great deal of things in life but I don't purport to know why we are here and how we got here. I'm comfortable with NOT knowing the answers to those questions.
I do not recall ever being asked this question. Then again, I primarily lived in States where people where more modest and discussions about politics and religion where/are considered taboo topics (you know, don't want to rock the boat, to each their own). I understand that it is a far bigger deal in Texas.
To answer the question, however, I believe that humans have great imaginations.
...oh wait, I recall a few encounters with Born Agains while living in California. They were so adamant about their topic that it was painfully evident they were not going to listen to any other point-of-view. Extremely frustrating, but not worth the elevated blood pressure.
Location: The Land Mass Between NOLA and Mobile, AL
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AREQUIPA
The answer would usually come back 'everyone must believe in something'. It is of course the old equivocation fallacy that theists so often use to try to make god - belief look something other than sheer fantasy. You all know how it works
'You believe that your car will start, that your house will not fall down etc..'
'Therefore my belief in fairies, leprechauns and the Loch Ness monster is just as valid.'
Obviously belief in verifiable fact is different from belief in unverified claims, even if the same word is used.
So Ok. I believe in what can be verified. I believe in the proven methods used to verify those facts. I even believe in the occurrence of empirically agreed human experiences such as NDe's unexplained healings and ecstatic feelings reached through meditation. I do not (yet) believe in the unverified claims about what they signify.
'Everyone believes in something' is therefore one of those over simple and actually false propositions (like Prove to me that God doesn't exist..with the unstated premise that, if you can't he must exist) which are designed to fool unprepared or unwary people into crediting faith - claims.
I just want to say that I agree with you; I'm only explaining it in a different way. What you are talking about here is also an "ad popullum" fallacy according to rhetorical theory. Just as you pretty much can't prove a negative, (prove to me that god doesn't exist), appealing to the beliefs of an imagined "everyone" is equally as fallacious. On the one hand, what "everyone" believes is pretty easily proven false, while on the other, the premise that "everyone believes in something" is so vague as to be equally meaningless. As a part of the "everyone," I could claim that I believe that little green smurfs control the universe, thus rendering the "what everyone believes" clause equally meaningless.
That said, I won't go quite so far as to say that belief in some kind of theism is sheer fantasy because throngs of people have believed in such for millenia; some people are really helped by their beliefs in such systems in such ways that other people who believe in imaginary systems aren't, like people who are mentally ill. By saying that, I am in no way suggesting that those systems of belief are equivalent or that religious people are mentally ill, but rather that many of us need an overarching and regulatory system of beliefs to organize our lives.
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