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petslave2b -> RE: What do you think of Aetheists? (11/15/2010 5:15:46 AM)
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"Atheists don't need imagination therefore they don't seem to have much."
Atheists have fertile imaginations, which is why they are atheists and don't believe overly simplistic fairytales.
"The atheists claim to know some things the do not. Otherwise, everybody can believe they wish and this includes the atheists. "
Believers claim to know things they do not, atheists simply point out it is belief not knowledge.
"and if they don't I find we clash in personalities. My religion plays a part in every single part of my life. It IS my life."
No wonder you have issues with atheists. If religion means that much to you, you would be unable to avoid religion effecting your view on anything and everything. This would obviously cause problems when dealing with more open minded individuals.
"There are very few on here who identify themselves as agnostic or atheist who have not expressed an openness to the possibility of a God."
A possibility that is so remote it's not worth considering, and only applies to the agnostic/deist kind of god, not the anthrocentric gods from our ancestors. Many atheists understand religion from a historical, psychological perspective, which answers what gods are and were they come from, severly limiting any possibility of their actual existence. It is a much more agnostic view to ignore the historical, psychological perspective and allow for a higher posibility of gods, or the possibility of any and all gods.
"I find many more people of faith expressing a doubt "
If they believe and have faith, then they already KNOW god(s) exists, based on no evidence, contrary to all available evidence, and they are certain their god is the true god, based solely on the fact it is their god. Atheists on the other hand rely on evidence, and if any evidence of a god was found, they would accept it. Religious people deny or twist evidence to fit the beliefs they already have.
"What do I think of Atheists? I have the same opinion of all religions "
So you have the same opinion of all religions, now what do you think about atheists? That's right, atheism is not a religion.
"If I believed death was a permanent end to my existance, I would fear death so much I would be unable to enjoy life or lead a normal life. "
If I believed we lived for eternity after we died life would be so meaningless all I would do is sit around waiting to die. Every moment of life means so much when it's the only one you have.
"Would you be willing to consider your own personal direct experience to be evidence? Not evidence that any particular set of dogmas or doctrines are true -- just evidence that there really is something beyond your normal awareness that transcends our conventional understanding of the world.
I ask because so many of the people who state an openness to evidence place a contraint on what kind of evidence they are willing to accept. "
Knowledge and evidence shows how our minds work, how unreliable our senses and memories are, as well as our self assessment. This is why personal anecdotes are not evidence. The constraint on evidence comes from knowledge, and openness does not mean ignoring evidence.
"Someone who is only willing to acknowledge the objective and publicly verifiable aspects of the world as real has ruled out the only possible source of evidence for the divine, namely, their own private experience."
Psychics use a similar argument, and are wrong for the same reasons. We KNOW our personal memories and interpretations are unreliable. Science is the most reliable tool we have to examine the world around us.
"But there is no scientific proof for a claim that the only valid form of evidence is a replicable application of scientific method."
You may want to examine the success rate of the scientific method compared to all other ways people have tried to understand the world around them.
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