Is "lack of belief" a "kind of belief?"

[Typist]

Lack of belief in God does not inform my behaviour.

In actual documented real world fact, it has motivated you to type 376,876 billion trillion posts on this topic all over this forum.

Your claim is equally fantastic to any theist claim.

Your claim is in direct contradiction to the extensively documented evidence all of us can see with our own eyes.

So the question for me is, why would folks who so adamantly claim reason as their method be so relentlessly passionate about making claims that can so easily be debunked with the simplest bit of reason?

Let the dodging and weaving begin...

[chaz wyman]

I’ve been beaten with the idea that, if theism is a belief, then atheism must also be a belief so often (and most recently, of course, by Typist on this forum), that I thought it time to begin an in-depth exploration of the topic.

Let me begin by giving my own perspective on the idea of “belief.”

A lack of belief is a belief in exactly the same sort of way that Black is a colour. It is a belief to people who do not understand basic reality, like people who do not see that blackness is the absence of light.

It is the same as saying that DEATH is a kind of living.

Sometimes a negation really is a negation, and requires no work or input.

[Typist]

Thank you for sharing your atheist beliefs Chaz!

[chaz wyman]

Thank you for sharing your atheist beliefs Chaz!

CENSORED. [Enough I think - Amod, you can delete this bit when read]

THe views I expressed are not related to God and therefor have nothing to do with me being a atheist.

[Arising_uk]

I thought you had chaz on your ignore list?

'aphilosophy' also promote a lack of will along with a lack of thought?

[Typist]

Wha, you dah did da diddy dah boo boo? Analysis of your paralysis in syncho la dinko? Type, type, type, text, text, text, wordage, wordage, wordage, thunk, think, thank, reply button mania run amok a duck a whucka what the fucka???

[Thundril]

Typist, you are a poet!

[Typist]

Danka ya youse, ya sure!

[Arising_uk]

About time for the woods I think.

[Thundril]

Time for an early glas o wine.
Cheers folks!

[Thundril]

Myself, I'd like to put the relationship between knowledge and belief like this:

Some people believe that they know, I know that I believe.

Meaning, basically, that you can have knowledge, but you can't be sure that it actually is knowledge, while you can have beliefs, and be certain that they are beliefs.

And, by the way, I'm a theist. I believe because I want to. It's wishful thinking, I know.

Thank you. I have discussed the matter of 'faith' with a lot of people, (including an imam who worked at the same taxi company as me in Leeds, and a rabbi I shared a spliff with at Glasto) and you are only the second person to agree, quite straightforwardly, that faith requires suspension of disbelief.. (the first was the stoned rabbi.)

How can I believe, though I have indeed studied the matter? I once started a topic on that, Building Religion from the Ground Up: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4768

I just followed the link. Fascinating first page: I liked the idea of continually updating the OP. I got to the bottom of page one, saw that it went on for 68 pages, so skipped to the end. And guess what? The last poster, (in Feb this year), was me
Spooky or what?

[Typist]

I just followed the link. Fascinating first page: I liked the idea of continually updating the OP. I got to the bottom of page one, saw that it went on for 68 pages, so skipped to the end. And guess what? The last poster, (in Feb this year), was me
Spooky or what?

Aha, so YOU'RE the one who killed that thread!

[Thundril]

I was being nice to EH!
Does that kill threads?

[Notvacka]

Myself, I'd like to put the relationship between knowledge and belief like this:

Some people believe that they know, I know that I believe.

Meaning, basically, that you can have knowledge, but you can't be sure that it actually is knowledge, while you can have beliefs, and be certain that they are beliefs.

And, by the way, I'm a theist. I believe because I want to. It's wishful thinking, I know.

Thank you. I have discussed the matter of 'faith' with a lot of people, (including an imam who worked at the same taxi company as me in Leeds, and a rabbi I shared a spliff with at Glasto) and you are only the second person to agree, quite straightforwardly, that faith requires suspension of disbelief.. (the first was the stoned rabbi.)

Yes. But frankly, so does reality. I find it rather unbelievable most of the time.

How can I believe, though I have indeed studied the matter? I once started a topic on that, Building Religion from the Ground Up: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4768

I just followed the link. Fascinating first page: I liked the idea of continually updating the OP. I got to the bottom of page one, saw that it went on for 68 pages, so skipped to the end. And guess what? The last poster, (in Feb this year), was me
Spooky or what?

I'm quite happy that the thread ended on such a beautiful note. (Though it could still be resurrected, of course.)

[Notvacka]

A lack of belief is a belief in exactly the same sort of way that Black is a colour. It is a belief to people who do not understand basic reality, like people who do not see that blackness is the absence of light.

But in most practical situations, and in common language, black is a colour. Any painter knows that.

As for understanding "basic reality", who can claim to manage such a feat? I sure don't.