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with a special thanks to alarcojon for greeting me at my fifth post and directing me here! I have been lurking for over a year, so I knew about this section, but thanks anyway!
I need to introduce myself, as I plan to be here awhile. I am not as erudite, thoughtful, and fair as Az. I am not as mercurial as beam me up scottie, and no, I am not Modem Butterfly under another name :( .
As for the biggie, yes I am a strong, or hard atheist. I know that bothers some (Hi Az :hi: ). The reason that I am has to do with the fact that I was a philosophy major in college. There I was quickly introduced to Descartes.
For those who are not familiar with his religious/philosophy work, he was the one who came up with "I think therefore I am." This came about as a result of a thought experiment in which he decided to see what could be known by thought alone. He noted that our senses can deceive us, eg. hallucinations, mirages, etc. So he posited a theoretical force (a demon) that has caused all of our senses to be lying (or unreliable ) to us. A modern equivalent would be like the Matrix, or a brain in a jar connected to a computer.
Given this situation of doubt, what can we, by brain power alone, KNOW is true? Descartes after some thought concluded that he existed, else what is doing the thinking? He then went on to make a bunch of bad conjectures (using circular reasoning), and "proved" all sorts of things. I agree with him, though, that we can concluded that the "I" doing the thinking exists, but what else?
After much thought, I concluded that time and space exist. "I" must exist SOMEWHERE (thus space), the concept of all of this thinking taking place in "frozen time" makes no sense to me. Thus time (over which I have memories and thinking) exists.
Nothing else can be PROVED, as far s I am concerned. All of my experiences could have been fed to me by the machines, just like Neo.
However, solipsism is not a viable (or even sane) alternative; no one actually lives like that is true (except possibly the insane). Therefore, I have to take the rest of the universe ON FAITH, or BELIEVE that it is (mostly) the way that it appears to be. That solids are more or less that way that they appear (I know, they are mostly empty space, but to our equally tenuous bodies objects "feel" and "look" solid). That other people do indeed exist, and are much like me in feelings and thoughts and reactions. There is no thought experiment that can PROVE this, so it must be taken ON FAITH, or as a given, at least as far as I am concerned.
Which brings me to my strong atheism. Given that I take EVERYTHING except myself, time, and space on faith as existing the way it appears, I am comfortable with strongly denying things that do not appear to be the case. it is up to others to prove that they exist. IF anything is (to my mind) patently absurd, the person advocating it must prove that I am wrong, otherwise I will POSITIVELY contend that it is not the case. In VERY RARE instances I might be wrong, but I am comfortable with that possibility.
FOR EXAMPLE: I POSITIVELY assert that there are no gods (as I see NO indications that there are) in the same way that I would POSITIVELY assert that there are no cats or dogs or (name an animal) living on the sun. Anyone who wants to PROVE me wrong can try to do so, but it is going to take some convincing. I am not wishy-washy or agnostic about the possibility of animals living on the sun, and I am similarly positive about the non-existence of gods.
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