Original poster wimped out. (mod edit)
Offline Hello all. Well, I know that atheists are pretty much bent on the theists to prove the existance of a god. Well, I think in all fairness, you may not think you have to prove anything but when you look just a little bit harder, you do have to prove one thing.
Atheism is based on the concept that there is no God or sentient being.
I think that it is safe to say then that an atheists view essentially boils down to there is nothing there.
So, my question to you is:
Does nothing exist?
Since this is the very foundation of your argument, can you prove that nothing exists?
Remember that if nothing does exist, it essentially becomes something. And, therefore nothing doesn't exist.
Please keep the discussion light and fun. This is just a small exercise to toy around with.
Mod edit:
I'm going to comment here and have this moved:
How does it feel to have your own argument bite you on the ass?
Take your arrogance and leave it at the door.
Oh please. I find it interesting that you took the one piece in my post that was, at most, mildly offputting, called it 'arrogance' and focused on that, while ignoring my arguments.
I do not have a problem with learning concepts and in general get a sense and feel for others points of view.
Then prove it by responding to my points, rather than throwing a hissy fit over an imagined insult.
I have no problem with being wrong. But I will not tolerater your arrogance.
I asked to keep it fun and light and you couldn't even handle those instructions.
How is saying your own argument bit you in the ass not keeping it light and fun? Where's the insult there? Where's the arrogance?
I think you're just looking for a reason to run off, so you need an imaginary insult to justify not responding.
You are talking about the burden of proof. If someone claims some exists they prove. If someone doesn't think so it is probably because they haven't been given the proof. In some cases they have a more plausible explanation of the ideas that might lead a person to the god idea or even develop logical proofs against a well defined god idea.
Your question might answer itself if you look into what a person means when they say they are atheist.
What’s reality?
In the context of existence it is an idea that is describing the non-existence of things. Basically it exists like the number zero. Well technically any number, but in the terms of numbers zero is a good reflection of the idea. Nothing is an idea nothing more.
I think you have a narrow view of atheist probably given to you by a believer or some who would call themself agnostic.
Well, it's your claim, after all.
And then there's this: if we are free to simply assume that whatever we wish to be is true, until disproven, then you're left with a big problem: you must accept every claim as true until you disprove it....
Which would include me saying "your belief is false"
See the problem?
To be rational is to accept that there is a burden of proof on a claimant.
It's based on a lack of belief in the claims of theism, which hold that there 'is' a 'god'.
Now, I must ask you: How can something supernatural be sentient? To be supernatural is to be beyond nature, right? Not part of nature. SO, this means to be beyond having a nature or an identity.
So how can something beyond identity have sentience, when sentience grants identity? To be sentient is to posses characteristics, identity, to be something. To have a nature. To have a nature is to be part of nature.
See the problem?
Augustine, Aquinas and Luther saw it. Do you?
Nothing there? Nothing 'where' exactly? How can there be a 'there' when any 'there' is a reference to a place, i.e. an existent. and the supernatural is beyond nature?
LOL
No. 'Nothing' is a term that exists in contradistinction to something.
By refering to 'nothing' as an existent, you're commiting a stolen concept fallacy.
No, it is not. It is the foundation of your confused misunderstanding
of atheism.
The foundation of atheism is NOT that 'nothing exists'. It is that there is no reason to hold that a god exists.
Ergo, the atheist uses the term 'nothing' as a constradistinctive, and not an ontological reference.
So try again, matey.
Better yet, hit the libary first, and check out the metaphysics section, and then come back.
Remember: if something is defined as beyond nature, then you can't refer to it as an existent.
How does it feel to have your own argument bite you on the ass?
Seriously, you're mistake is that 1) you've confused atheism as holding that 'nothing exists' when in fact it uses the term (if it uses it at all) as a contradinctory and 2) you've made the blunder of stealing the concept of existence by referring to nothingness as an existent.
"Hitler burned people like Anne Frank, for that we call him evil.
"God" burns Anne Frank eternally. For that, theists call him 'good.'
What an absurd nothing that I must believe that nothing exists. This has to be the worst strawman argument I've heard in a long time.
how exactly did you come to this conclusion? and where is "there"?
Rill
What? Nothing? Where?
Depends, are you saying Nothing as "No-Thing", or nothing as a something?
Problem is you say that Atheism is "There is no god."
Atheism is "There isn't a god."
Yes, there is a difference.
How does it feel to have your own argument bite you on the ass?
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Take your arrogance and leave it at the door. I do not have a problem with learning concepts and in general get a sense and feel for others points of view. I have no problem with being wrong. But I will not tolerater your arrogance.
I asked to keep it fun and light and you couldn't even handle those instructions. I'm done and mods can lock seeing as i do not have the ability.
Thanks to the others that were able to keep it light and fun, I did learn several things, cheers.
You need to look at the whole picture. By that I mean the universe. There is a LOT of nothingness in the universe! A LOT of empty space where there is no light, no matter, no radio waves, not even a single atom. So it IS possible for nothing to exist. If you don't believe me, look up at the sky sometime.
BB