Atheists like Aristotle, Hume, Nietzsche spent more time attacking the delusions of science than using it to criticize religion.So your claim is that atheists believe there is something beyond physical matter and energy.
You're starting to drift off into some conjecture about panpsychism, universal sprirts, transcendental planes of reality, lol.
This is what I mean when I say if you hold atheists toes to the fire of strict physical materialism, they can't live out their atheism to its logical conclusion.
Could A Good God Permit So Much Suffering?
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The reason I know more about Christianity than the average Bible thumper is because I actually listen to reputable Christian apologists with an open mind.
The reason I know more about atheism than all atheists on this board is because I consistently investigate and study prominent atheist influencers and seminal atheist authors with an open mind.
I don't practice confirmation bias by going only to sources that confirm my preconceived biases. The fact that almost all of your knowledge about Christianity came from atheist websites and atheist podcasts is precisely the reason you are constantly being surprised, being caught off guard, and being forced to frantically Google after reading the posts written by people who did the hard work to study this topic comprehensively without confirmation bias.
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If you and Perry are going to start following in my footsteps and check out reputable and highly educated Christian apologists, my top draft picks are:
John Lennox, who is a professor of mathematics at Oxford University.
William Lane Craig, who is a PhD-level philosopher.
On the atheist side my draft picks are Alex O'Connor and Bart Ehrman, because these dudes are trained in formal logic and theology.
I think Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are utterly mediocre, because one is a zoologist and the other is a political pundit, and neither of them seem to have any training in formal logic, philosophy, and theology.
I don't agree with everything any of these guys say, but I have profited from them by approaching them with an open mind.
Not beyond. Next to.So your claim is that atheists believe there is something beyond physical matter and energy.
Nothing I said implies that.
The world exists whether there is god or not. I start there.
Phyllis Diller
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Phyllis Diller
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right. it's a faith.
Phyllis Diller
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you don't know more than the average person about christianity.
you're just arrogant.
you're actually bad at arguing.
The average Christian doesn’t know shit about their own religion.
Phyllis Diller
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yes we know, you hate Christians.
The average Christian can’t:
Tell you what language the NT was written in.
They can’t articulate what the Trinity is
They think that the 4 gospels were actually written by Mark, Matthew, Luke and John
They have no idea about the Council of Nicaea
They don’t know that the 10 Commandments and Genesis have elements of polytheism in them
They don’t know what the capitalized LORD in their Bible means
They are unaware that there are 4 conflicting resurrection narratives and 2 contradictory birth stories
On and on. That includes you
Physical materialism - which by necessity is central to the atheist belief system - is a philosophy not a science. No one can empirically and experimentally prove that the motions of matter and energy can comprehensively explain everything about life, the universe, and everything.
Anyone who wants to start claiming that there might be some transcendent plane of reality extending beyond physical matter and energy is starting to veer off into pantheism, panpsychism, transcendentalism, or New Age spirituality and crystal power.
I've never seen any of the prominent atheist influencers in YouTube debates ever veer away from strict physical materialism, because they know as a debate strategy that leaves them wide open to their theist interlocutor saying that the atheist is accepting some transcendent plane of reality beyond physical matter and energy.
Actually the ONLY necessary central concept in atheism is that they lack a god. That's what the word means.
Implicit atheism is underlain by the same reasoning that scientists use to assess truth claims.
Universal claim offered without evidence.
That's all we have. Everything else is just made up imagination.
Pretty fucking straight forward stuff, dude.
I understand there is a desire to construct a type of atheism that doesn't have to explain or defend anything, nor answer any questions.
That is a dream scenario in any debate situation, because you can complain about religion till the cows come home, without ever having to defend atheism.
A concise dictionary definition doesn't capture the essence of atheism anymore than a concise dictionary definition of quantum mechanics is able to adequately explain the quantum nature of reality.
Atheism becomes a belief system when you consider the logical consequences of atheism.
Unless you want to start veering off into panthetheism, transcendentalism, and existential planes of reality beyond natural physical matter and energy, then strict physical materialism has to be the central philosophical belief of atheism.
And there are serious questions and logical consequences that come with believing in strict, inanimate physical materialism that most atheists studiously try to avoid answering directly.
Atheism is nothing more or less than merely the failure to believe in the claims of a God.
That's it. 100%. Total.
Wrong.
It's remarkable that you believe everything you need to know about atheism, Newtonian mechanics, quantum mechanics, democracy can be be acquired by reading a concise dictionary definition.
Why have universities then?
If you do not believe in strict, inanimate physical materialism as the central philosophical belief in an atheist worldview, please tell me about these other transcendent planes of reality that exist beyond physical matter and energy.
Why does atheism terrify you so, Cliffe?