Introduction Imagine that someone presents us with a box. That box weighs three pounds. The person presenting us with the box says that there is a rabbit in the box, and the fact that it weighs three pounds proves that there is a rabbit in the box. This is not the case of course, just because a box weighs three pounds does not prove that there is a rabbit in the box. There could be some other explanation for why…
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When getting involved with discussions, especially on twitter, I keep hearing the phrase ‘The McRae Virus’ – often when discussing definitions or logic. I find this a strange way to dismiss a logical argument that doesn’t fit one’s narrative. Before entering the world of internet debates and things, I thought that an atheist was someone who believed or claimed gods do not exist. When I joined the debating world on Facebook many years ago, I was ‘corrected’ by many fellow…
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I often ask people, ‘What things are defined just by what they lack?’ – interestingly there are very few answers to this, but feel free to shoot some over and I’ll add them to the article. The reason I ask this is largely because of commonly heard, ‘atheism is only a lack of belief in gods, therefore, anything that lacks belief is an atheist’ aka conflating all forms of non-theist with atheist. This analysis may differ in various languages, and…
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Introduction The sun will rise tomorrow. This seems to be an uncontroversial statement. The sun came up today, and the sun came up yesterday, and the day before that. Just as it has for millions of days before that. Gravity held today, just as it has held since the formation of the universe. This is, again, another uncontroversial statement. We often predict future events based on generalisations of past experiences. It is how science works, and it is how science…
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I’m an atheist. *Gasp* ‘Hold the phone!’ Hard to believe that an atheist runs an atheist site right? I’ve even been the keyboard warrior type of atheist, although that was many years ago. I spent lots of time debating theists desperately hoping that either they could provide me with some evidence of a deity, or I could get them to see reason past their presupposition and fallacies. Over time I got bored of the conversations, there are only so many…
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Introduction One of our authors, Davidian, here at Answers in Reason recently published an excellent article discussing the burden of proof on beliefs. The response to this article by many atheists and sceptics on Twitter was interesting to say the least. It received an awful lot of pushback, with many arguing that Davidian did not understand what an atheist was, what atheism was, and what the burden of proof was. The results were the same when I tried to get…
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Introduction There will, of course, be many contemporary sceptics and atheist who read the title and simply groan. Dismissing the article before reading it because of some misinformed idea about Cartesian scepticism, or some excuse that they do not need to read up on scepticism because they are ‘freethinking truth-seeking sceptics’ already. To some extent, the former cannot be blamed, for Cartesian scepticism has been the go-to of most presuppositionalists for a long time. If that is the contemporary sceptics…
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Having spent a lot of time in debate, I have heard a number of fallacies and awful arguments being made by both sides. Admittedly, some of these were from myself on occasion and I don’t doubt it will happen again. Given these awful arguments and in the interest of fairness I thought I would make a shortlist of our[atheists]; worst arguements, the reasons why, and any links to explain in more detail. Through writing this article, I realised it wasn’t…
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Among the sceptic community, we frequently see folks flexing what is known as denialist behaviour. Denialists are technically a subset of Pseudosceptics, but what do both those terms mean? Contents Denialism Pseudo-scepticism Key Behaviours of a Sceptic Key Behaviours of a Pseudosceptic Example of a Pseudosceptic Behaviour in a Debate The Rejection of Philosophy in the Atheist Community The Resistance to Change Pseudointellectuals An Example of a Pseudointellectual The Great Debate Community – Steve vs Duke Summary of the Video…
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Hello, and welcome to Fresh AiR! – I’m Joe… Words you will have heard a few times if you have already started listening to season one. What is Fresh AiR? ‘Fresh AiR’ is a podcast, hosted by Joe, Martijn and Dave. It is part of Answers in Reason but hopes to bring a fresh perspective on a number of topics you might hear from the atheist community. Who are involved in Fresh AiR? The short answer is anyone that wants…
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