Evidence for atheism
Published August 27th, 2008 (This is my response to an e-mail from someone who asked not to be quoted online.)At this point, because of the volume of e-mail I get, I no longer participate in debates that I can’t post on my blog. Sorry about that — it was eating all my time so I had to draw a line. I will answer your question about arguments for atheism by saying that I do not have an argument for atheism because I don’t believe there needs to be one. I am an atheist because I have not seen compelling evidence that God exists, and I believe that the burden of proof is on theists. Atheism is the default position. We can go into this further if you like, but only if you don’t mind my posting our correspondence to my blog (with any private info about you removed if you like, of course) so that all my readers may benefit.
dontbelieve on December 13, 2008
Hi,
For some time I have been searching the Internet for information that provides a good argument in favor of atheism. You may not have time to answer my questions, and if not, thanks anyway.
“I do not have an argument for atheism because I don’t believe there needs to be one.”
Accepted. In my opinion everyone is free to believe what they want regardless of whether the belief is based on evidence or fantasy.
“I am an atheist because I have not seen compelling evidence that God exists, and I believe that the burden of proof is on theists.”
Agreed, a burden of proof that a god exists rests on the theist who claims a god exists, but my question is that shouldn’t a person have a valid reasoning to claim anything, including a claim that a god does not exist? I myself do not care about pushing my beliefs on the public, nor of my convincing anyone of anything, but rather what I want is to convince myself. If I were a theist I would demand of myself to possess evidence of a god, and with the same self-demanding logic I also require evidence that no god exists. Does such evidence exist?
I have read the endless authors who structure their atheism logic on the fallacies of religious books, but for myself I cannot find it logical that a book’s errors proves a thing to not exist. “Alice in Wonderland” is not a true history, but the falseness of the book does not necessitate that I must then believe that no girl named Alice can exist. Yes, religious books are incorrect, but an incorrect book proves nothing more than the book is incorrect.
I am hoping to find a valid reasoning that supports the conclusion that no god exists. Surely someone somewhere has presented a good sequencing of evidence that supports the conclusion that no god exists.
If you post this on your blog, I would appreciate it if you do not give my email address or any other information about me. Like you, I don’t need the hate email. :)