Talk:What All Atheists Have to Believe

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There is a more fundamental problem with the issues expressed here. It is all about Christians who stop believing in the Christian god. This is far too narrow a view.--Bob"I think you'll find it's more complicated than that." 05:56, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

It's interesting to read how people classify their world, in order to reinforce their belief system. All of us do it at times - sterotype Islam to think all women who wear veils are some how oppressed, minimize GMO expansiveness to "monsanto". But when you see it played out to this degree, it's almost startling. Entire hordes of Christians are just wiped out of existence so that the Creationist can strengthen his argument; entire religions and non-religions are not addressed. Just "the one image i have in my mind fills the role I need it to, therefore it is correct". One tin soldier (talk) 06:29, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
Precisely. I mean, I was raised in a liberal Jewish household and became an atheist. Very little of this even applies to me; it's absurd to talk about "all atheists" as though we all deconverted from Christianity. Wehpudicabok [話] [変] [留] 07:42, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
And not just "Christianity", but a very particular limited form of Christianity that requires believe in creationism, literalism, etc. My father was a Methodist minister. he was also totally into science in both fiction and reality. He never once had a problem with a god that "created" a big bang and stood back; he didn't think the world was anything but the 10 billion years he was taught in highschool (they hadn't quite gotten the numbers right); he didn't need the bible to be literal - he viewed it as humans who have failings, trying to express their views/felling and inspirations of the divine. So his "atheism" would be a radically different path, had he gone that way. One tin soldier (talk) 15:07, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
Well, according to some people from this discussion here: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Talk:Creationism#Contradiction.3F (and further down the page)
and the series of edits made starting from this one: http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Creationism&diff=1321249&oldid=1320754
your father is no less creationist and out-of-touch with science than any old Young Earth Creationist. (not that I agree with that, but hey, it seems to be the prevailing opinion around here...) Nullahnung (talk) 15:21, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
There is and has always been an extremely "anti religion" bent to specific editors of RW. I think it is not reflective of most of the users, but I think most users don't want to bother challenging it, either - since it's a fine line to walk.One tin soldier (talk) 17:56, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

Considering this some more, the title is even more wrong than I thought. Atheists don't have to believe anything at all. The whole point is that there is one particular myth in which they don't believe - apart from that they can believe anything at all.--Bob"I think you'll find it's more complicated than that." 11:50, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

Hell, even the title suggests...[edit]

...that horseshit is inbound (atheism is not a belief, it is a disbelief, but everyone knows that here).--Arisboch ☞✍☜☞✉☜ ∈)☼(∋ 14:23, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

It always amazes me how people don't get that. It's the null hypothesis. It's like saying it's a belief system to not believe in Thor, the Loch Ness monster, or underpants gnomes. -EmeraldCityWanderer (talk) 14:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
But that's not the only time (religious and various other) cranks call stuff a religion to ridicule it (someone (in debate-space, AFAIK, but still) called "government" a religion, no idea, if it was a serious question, though).--Arisboch ☞✍☜☞✉☜ ∈)☼(∋ 14:41, 2 September 2015 (UTC)