A wander through the many Facebook groups, YouTube videos, and Twitter tweeters with atheism as their central subject matter will see many atheists and sceptics making the claim of being rational. One could also look at the ‘memeosphere’ centred around atheism and scepticism to see images making claims like ‘I am a sceptic/atheist because I…
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…
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…
Are we Born Atheist?
“We are all born atheist!” is something we have heard a lot. I’ve said it in the past. I am sure if you are an atheist you have said it too. But how true is that? What is an Atheist? An atheist is someone who subscribes to atheism. Atheism is polysemous (has many definitions).We have…
Conflated and Misunderstood Terms – Volume 5: I Don’t Believe
When people say “I don’t believe” it is unclear what they are saying. When many folks say this, they are discussing a psychological state rather than disbelief in a normative logical sense. But what does that mean? Logic and Belief Propositions By belief proposition, I am essentially saying believing a proposition to be true, or…
Fresh AiR – S01:E06 – Reason and Rationality
In the last episode of the season we thought it prudent to cover reason as it is our namesake. What better to pair with reason, other than rationality? Show Contents We have a full house tonight, with Dave, Martijn, Kriss, Andy and Joe in tow. DefinitionsReasons to believe, and if they are rational or irrationalAltruism/RHBDiversionsThought…
Fresh AiR – S01:E05 – Belief, Truth, and Knowledge
Tonight, we are going to discuss Belief, Knowledge and Truth, and how they can interact with each other and reality. Definitions of Belief, Truth, and Knowledge Belief A proposition you accept as/believe to be true. This does not define whether the belief is rational or not, nor does it define the strength, it simply demonstrates…
The Science Of Belief
Having studied psychology for only a year I must admit I am only something of an armchair expert so this article is going to lean heavily on several sources. One is this most excellent and totally non-heinous video by the great Darkmatter2525 – Watch the video here Another source is from a book gifted to me…
