Quote:
Originally Posted by shakran
Additionally, atheism IS a belief, not a lack of belief. The atheist /believes/ that there is no god. He has no proof, any more than the theist has proof of whatever god he happens to believe in, because you can't prove a conceptual negative.
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I don't agree. You can come to a conclusion with enough evidence, even if none of it is conclusive. All scientific theories are based on this, that every time it has been tested, it has come up true. While it would be ideal if more things worked on deductive reasoning (If A is true, then B is true. A is true. Therefore B is true), science is based on inductive reasoning (Every time I have seen a swan, it was white. Therefore, I conclude, all swans are white). Scientific theories are "true" on the basis that every time they tested it, it made a correct prediction, and that therefore, it is reasonable to use it to make predictions you might rely on.
There is always more tests to do (There are black swans in New Zealand). To say "There is no God", at least when I say it, is to say "Every single time my hypothesis 'There is no God' has made a prediction on the outcome of something, it has been correct". As soon as something is presented to me, that is inconsistent with that theory, the theory needs to be changed.
I don't "believe" there is no God, I "know" there is no God, with the same certainty I "know" the sun will rise tomorrow.
And there will be those who say "then you're not an atheist, you're agnostic". But really, labels are really rather personal things. You apply labels to others, to organise things in you mind. If I explain what I think, and you label me an agnostic, and I label myself an atheist, it doesn't matter, as long as you're consistent, you'll conclude the correct things about me, it's only when trying to express your label to others that confusion sets in.
As for pearlist... well the same thing applies. I'd never heard the term before now, so it made no sense. Atheist, on the other hand, leads me to a series of conclusions that are generally right about the person who is labelled as such, even if the label itself doesn't make sense.