“Nonbelief is a belief? Who knew…” – an often said sarcastic comment by many fellow atheists as a retort to theists calling atheism a religion or belief system. Whilst I agree atheism is not a religion, and that it is a polysemous word which has moved from the classical disbelief in the existence of gods…
Words are funny things!
Words are a funny thing. They are necessary for advanced communication, but those very same words are the cause of miscommunication. We can have entire conversations with each other, and sound like we’re talking to other, but actually be having two different conversations. Often times people are so busy trying to ‘dispatch’ their ‘opponent’, and…
TrolleyDave’s response to ’36 Questions for Atheists’
IntroductionA few days ago, Davidian, another of the authors here at Answers in Reason, linked me to an article titled ’36 Questions for Atheists’ on a site called ‘Adherent Apologetics’. While generally I would not respond to an article like this, I thought it might be interesting to reply. It is not that there is…
In Response to “36 Questions for Atheists”
Questions are great. They, hopefully, make us think about things and can open a world of conversation. I have spent a lot of time on the internet discussing various topics, and have often found the religion-based ones a bit of a dead-end. On both sides, we seem to have folks more concerned about pushing their…
Do we Atheists have a Burden of Proof? – Conflated and Misunderstood Terms: Vol 7
“The burden is on the claimant!”, “I only lack belief so I have no burden”, “I don’t hold a belief as that is a claim” and other phrases are touted by many fellow atheists on the internet. Is this correct, or are we missing some of the picture? This article hopes to discuss What is…
What is Agnosticism? How does it relate to knowledge and beliefs?
The term, agnosticism, has a long history and many folks are unaware of how it originated or how it was applied. So let us first deal with a variety of definitions. When dealing with dictionaries please remember they are descriptive, not prescriptive, so we will not only be covering dictionary definitions but also referencing a…
Has Atheism Become an Ideology?
Atheism is not a religion. It is just a position on one topic. Whilst the term is polysemous, in some way shape or form it is a negation of the theistic claim. This article hopes to examine how atheism is used as a political tool, and how some atheists have turned it into an ideology….
Denialism and Pseudoscepticism
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 DenialismPseudo-scepticismKey Behaviours of a ScepticKey Behaviours of a PseudoscepticExample of a PseudoscepticBehaviour in a DebateThe Rejection of Philosophy in the Atheist CommunityThe Resistance to ChangePseudointellectualsAn…
Conflated and Misunderstood Terms – Volume 6: Unbelief and Disbelief
Unbelief (or non-belief) and disbelief are two words that seem to be conflated by many folks on the internet. I’m not sure if this is down to a misunderstanding of their definitions, or just due to how they are quite similar words. I’ve recently written a few articles that are worth reading before this article,…
A Coherent Case for God?
I come across a number of theists on the internet, and I actually enjoy discussing beliefs. There are many theists I prefer to talk to than atheists. You get dogmatic fundy types on both sides. Admittedly I don’t feel any danger from the fundamentalist atheists, they just discuss philosophical concepts ignoring the philosophy. (Which can…
