re americans and evolution in article apr dcs warwick ac uk simon dcs warwick ac uk simon clippingdale writes deleted over on alt atheism we tend to recognise two categories of atheism function format due to mathew mantis co uk i think i weak not believe gods ii strong believe not gods deleted i am a strong atheist and i must quibble with your assertion that the strong position requires faith i believe that no god s as commonly described by theists exist this belief is merely an opinion formed on the basis of observation including a certain amount of introspection i fully accept that i could be wrong and will be swayed by suitably convincing evidence thus while i believe that no gods exist this does not imply faith on my part that it is so let me first say that to believe that no gods exist is in fact different than not believing in a god or gods i will argue that your latter statement i believe that no gods exist does rest upon faith that is if you are making a positive statement that no gods exist strong atheism rather than merely saying i don t know and therefore don t believe in them and don t not believe in then weak atheism once again to not believe in god is different than saying i believe that god does not exist i still maintain the position even after reading the faqs that strong atheism requires faith but first let me say the following we might have a language problem here in regards to faith and existence i as a christian maintain that god does not exist to exist means to have being in space and time god does not have being god is being kierkegaard once said that god does not exist he is eternal with this said i feel it s rather pointless to debate the so called existence of god and that is not what i m doing here i believe that god is the source and ground of being when you say that god does not exist i also accept this statement but we obviously mean two different things by it however in what follows i will use the phrase the existence of god in it s usual sense and this is the sense that i think you are using it i would like a clarification upon what you mean by the existence of god we also might differ upon what it means to have faith here is what webster says faith a allegiance to duty or a person loyalty b fidelity to one s promises sincerity of intentions a belief and trust in and loyalty to god belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b firm belief in something for which there is no proof complete trust something that is believed esp with strong conviction esp a system of religious beliefs syn see belief one can never prove that god does or does not exist when you say that you believe god does not exist and that this is an opinion based upon observation i will have to ask what observtions are you refering to there are no observations pro or con that are valid here in establishing a positive belief all observations can only point you in a direction a direction that we might even be predisposed to by predisposed i mean for example people whoes partents believe in god also tend to to actually draw a conclusion about the existence or non existence of god requires a leap and you have made this leap when you actively say i believe that god does does not exist personally i think that both statements are misguided arguing over the existence of god is precisely the wrong way to find him and yes i use him because a personal god is the only viable concept imo if a person wants to use she go ahead of course god is neither he nor she but we have no choice but to anthropomorphise if you want me to explain myself further i ll be glad to and please if someone does not agree with me even if they violently disagree it s in no ones advantage to start name calling if a person thinks i ve misunderstood something in the faqs or if they they think i have not read them well enough just point out to me the error of my ways and i correct the situation i m interested in a polite and well thought out discussion cheers simon simon clippingdale simon dcs warwick ac uk department of computer science tel university of warwick fax coventry cv al u k bob singleton bobs thnext mit edu
