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July 21, 2005 I have read numerous theistic pundits give their views of atheism, which are almost always inaccurate. I, perhaps naively, believe that if many theists knew exactly what the atheist world view was, they’d see that tiny portion that is not in line with their views, and would consider becoming an atheist themselves. I was once a theist and a very devout debater of my theism. It wasn’t until I noticed what I will describe below when I realized I was an atheist. Without going into the details of my de-conversion, I will instead offer how the theist has nearly the exact same world view as the atheist. Theists simply abandon that world view when thinking about their own religion. This is an old saying, but it is true: "You’re an atheist too, you just believe in one more god than I do". This means that if a theist could sit down and critically analyze why they do not believe in other gods without drawing upon dogmatic and circular edicts from their own doctrine (e.g., “God said there are no other gods, so there aren’t) then they’d realize they are changing the rules when evaluating their own beliefs. Theists have extremely sounds reasons and thorough logical arguments why other gods do not exist, or are very unlikely to, just as atheists do. But ask them to apply the same process to their own beliefs and they will move the goal posts. They will ignore the very logical argument they used to dismantle any sane reason to believe in a “sun god” or “invisible unicorn”. Suddenly, they switch to using jello-esque concepts like “faith” and “inner peace”. They ignore that the same claims are made from other religions. Theists and atheists alike will soundly take apart the claim of the existence of an invisible unicorn, or 40 foot tall women in the Amazon, or an extra moon hiding behind our current one. So in that respect, theists and atheists think alike. The dichotomy becomes apparent when the atheist keeps God belief in the same system of rules and logic as he does everything else. The theist, however, demonstrably evades the same tools of thought and perception they use elsewhere in their worldview. Theists often think their belief has the elements that other belief systems do not. They fail to realize that those elements may appear to be more sound and to have substantial evidence to support them, but deconstructing those ostensibly “sound” elements shows they are just as baseless as any claim without the masking of pseudo-evidence that complex beliefs such as Christianity enjoys. To use an example from Christianity, I will refer to the supposed “evidences” that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and rose from the dead. When a pastor or charismatic Christian excitedly speaks of these “evidences”, the trained critical thinker sees their flawed premises immediately. But the willing theist sitting in the sanctuary seemingly has no idea they are abandoning the very logic and critical thinking they use in daily life activities and when rejecting other god beliefs. So theists and atheists think alike almost all the time. I am an atheist because I prefer consistency and I prefer applying the same rules and logic to ALL experiences and claims. It boggles my mind that not everyone does that. ------------ About the author: Jeff Cleveland is a police officer in Columbus, Ohio. Jeff is married to a wonderful woman and has two beautiful young children. Email: martian@columbus.rr.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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