Subject:
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Re: Holy crap! (was Re: The partisian trap in California)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 20 Oct 2003 17:56:05 GMT
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Viewed:
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1029 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler wrote:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Justin Pankey wrote:
>
> > > Atheism is not a religion, although I know Xtians like to think that it is.
> >
> > This is because it takes "faith" to NOT believe in God because you have to
> > have faith in such fatally flawed teachings as evolution,etc. or regarding
> > whatever other theories you have about what got us here.
>
> Justin, your comment betrays a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of
> atheism. Consider the following statements:
>
> A: I believe that God does not exist.
> B: I do not believe that God exists.
>
> Do you see that these two statements are inherently different? The first is a
> statement of belief (in the notion that God does not exist), while the second is
> a statement of a lack of belief (in the notion that God exists). To put it
> another way, the first is a statement of positive belief in a negative, while
> the second is a statement of negative belief in a positive.
>
> It is a misrepresentation for you to claim that I, as an atheist, *believe* in
> the nonexistence of something. There are those who may indeed believe that God
> doesn't exist, but you are correct to identify such belief as a statement of
> faith.
<snip>
> Dave!
Are they inherently different?
Saying
2 + !2 = 5
or
2 + 2 = !5
Both equations are superfluously different, but inherently they are stating the
same thing.
Whether you say "I believe that God does not exist" or "I don't believe that God
exists", you are, in fact, stating the same thing--that you believe in
something. Rearranging the equation doesn't change the results--The word
'believe' is still there. Believe is akin to the equal sign in thr mathematics
expression above. Whether the 'not' comes before or after the believe (equal)
is just personal preference--the equation has the same results.
Dave K
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