Today’s Atheist Meme of the Day, from my Facebook page. Pass this on; or don’t; or edit it as you see fit; or make up your own. Enjoy!
I can’t be 100% certain that the earth goes around the sun. But it almost certainly does, and unless I see good evidence to the contrary, I’m assuming that it’s true. And as an atheist, I can’t be 100% certain that there is no God — but the God hypothesis isn’t plausible, and unless I see better evidence, I’m assuming God doesn’t exist. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.
I like to challenge them with Santa Claus: Prove to me that he doesn’t exist! And of course they can’t. But what we can say about Santa, what we know, is that he’s a fictional character, very loosely based on a real historical figure. Much like Jesus, except for the real historical figure part.
I use Santa Clause for a similar purpose, when Christians tell me that I just have to accept that Jesus exists and then he’ll then come into my heart. I’ll tell them that I can’t force myself to believe something that I don’t have enough evidence to support. It’s not a choice, it’s a fact of my biology, and everyone’s biology actually.
Something obviously convinced Christians to believe (or they were brainwashed as a child) but my standards are way higher.
On the negative-reinforcement side, I’m not 100% certain that touching a hot stove will burn me. But that doesn’t mean that I want to test it!
The same goes for hitting my hand with a hammer or diving into an empty pool. I’ve never actually tried it; does that mean that I should?
I’m sure enough that it’s not something I have any further interest in worrying about.
We ignostics find that as He has no referents as First Cause and such and His contradictory attributes are incoherent, He cannot exist as the original Carneades notes [ ” The Encyclopedia of Philosophy.].
And ignosticism is part of strong[ positive or wide] atheism rather than as Ayers and Drange aver as against it and theism.
Ignostic Morgan