re atheism survey i replied to this query via e mail but i think there are some issues that are worth discussing in public mta mtabbott unix amherst edu wrote i am doing research on atheism part of which involves field research here on the net the following is a survey directed towards all readers of this group intended to get data about the basis of atheistic belief i would recommend you to take a look at your dictionary alt atheism faq files to notice that atheism is not a belief system and what is common to all atheists is not a belief but a lack of belief in deities i cannot imagine how anyone could do research on atheism without paying careful attention to this issue first of all i ve tried to structure questions that can be answered in a variety of ways with varying amounts of detail it s possible to give succinct answers to most everything but there s enough here to keep most of you typing for hours i m sure imho this is a poor method to do any real survey although i m sure the replies might keep you amused for hours also i tend to use a lot of anthropological buzzwords like belief system although i know some of you might contend that you don t have any beliefs but are skeptical towards everything i understand but you know what i mean think of such buzzwords as abbreviations for the rather unweildy phrases required to get the precise idea across no i do not know what you mean if you are surveying our individual philosophies fine but that s not strictly atheism atheism is not just another godless version of the theistic explanations for life the universe and everything it is not a belief system and it could hardly be called a philosophical system once more atheism is characterised by lack of belief in deities do not twist the meaning or assume that we have some kind of philosophy we all agree on some comments on your questions what contact with other atheists have you had before and after and during your conversion to atheism certainly your involvement with alt atheism counts how have net discussions affected your beliefs i would also like to hear more about this have we been able to convert anyone are you convinced that your beliefs were acquired through wholly rational means proofs of the non existence of god etc or was it perhaps at least in part through other means alienation from mainstream religion etc this question contains a contradiction in terms beliefs cannot be acquired rationally if they could they would not be beliefs you also seem to have rather strange ideas of how people become atheists those who are alienated from religion do not necessarily become atheists they just think very little about religion it seems it requires a considerable time of honest inquiry to find out that religions are actually intellectually dishonest virtual realities those who have never had beliefs will certainly find this question quite odd how can lack of belief be acquired when did i acquire lack of belief in the easter bunny i did believe in santa though to what extent do you feel you understand the universe through your beliefs what phenomena of the universe and of human existence anything from physical phenomena to the problem of the existence of evil in human affairs do you feel are adequately dealt with by your beliefs and where are they lacking as an explanatory method this question does not make any sense since atheism does not deal with these issues it is not a worldview or a philosophy or a belief system sigh why haven t i seen a good well thought survey in the usenet for three years and what is the point of doing surveys in the net anyway just to abstract some opinions petri petri pihko kem pmp mathematics is the truth pihatie c finou oulu fi physics is the rule of sf oulu kempmp the game finland phoenix oulu fi chemistry is the game
