Neil deGrasse Tyson: "I am not an atheist!"

Hume said:
Right. A blind guess, not based on solid evidence. Like I mentioned above (invisible creatures in your coffee), you are equating a position for and against the existence of gods as equal. I think that is flawed reasoning. We shouldn't take a neutral position about every claim.

As I mentioned... Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If I come home and my front door is open and my neighbor says "I was sitting outside this morning and I saw a leprechaun walk up to your door, pick the lock and open it", I'm not going to take a position of "well... maybe, maybe not". Apply that same reasoning to a belief in gods and religion all but disappears.
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Okay, so you blindly guess there are no gods...and you want to pretend you are motivated by something else.

No problem.

Lots of atheists do that same thing.

And I happen to find that amusing.

We're both doing our thing.
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Right. A blind guess, not based on solid evidence. Like I mentioned above (invisible creatures in your coffee), you are equating a position for and against the existence of gods as equal. I think that is flawed reasoning. We shouldn't take a neutral position about every claim.

As I mentioned... Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If I come home and my front door is open and my neighbor says "I was sitting outside this morning and I saw a leprechaun walk up to your door, pick the lock and open it", I'm not going to take a position of "well... maybe, maybe not". Apply that same reasoning to a belief in gods and religion all but disappears.
[/QUOTE]
Okay, so you blindly guess there are no gods...and you want to pretend you are motivated by something else.

No problem.

Lots of atheists do that same thing.

And I happen to find that amusing.

We're both doing our thing.
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You keep writing "blind guess." You really should not spend your time pretending to debate.
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I am debating atheists the only way one can reasonably do.

When you are dealing with the question of whether at least one god exists...or if no gods exist...

...what you are actually dealing with is: What is the true nature of the REALITY of existence?

Did this thing we humans call "the universe" come about as the result of being created...or has it always existed?

If you are unable to answer those kinds of question with "I have no idea?"...then you should not be discussing this kind of issue.

My take on the issue is:


I do not know if any GOD (or gods) exist or not;
I see no reason to suspect that gods cannot exist…that the existence of a GOD or gods is impossible;
I see no reason to suspect that at least one GOD must exist...that the existence of at least one GOD is needed to explain existence;
I do not see enough unambiguous evidence upon which to base a meaningful guess in either direction on whether any gods exist or not...so I don't.

(When I use the word "GOD or gods" here, I mean "The entity (or entities) responsible for the creation of what we humans call 'the physical universe'...IF SUCH AN ENTITY OR ENTITIES ACTUALLY EXIST.)

If you find that to be defective or illogical in some way...FINE.

If you want to discuss what you find to be defective or illogical...fine with me. More than willing.

If you do NOT want to discuss it...also fine with me.
 
ZenMode said:
Do you take a neutral position on everything you hear and read?
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No. No reasonable, intelligent person would.

ZenMode said:
When Alex Jones said that the Sandy Hook shooting was all fake, the people involved were actors and the kids were still alive, was your first thought "Well maybe... maybe not"?
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Not at all. I thought Alex Jones is a fucking lying piece of shit. I thought that long before he mentioned the Sandy Hook shooting...and I still think it.
 
Ross Dolan said:
No. No reasonable, intelligent person would.


Not at all. I thought Alex Jones is a fucking lying piece of shit. I thought that long before he mentioned the Sandy Hook shooting...and I still think it.
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Even if you didn’t know Alex Jones’ history of being a lying conspiracy theorist, you’d have some immediate doubt about his Sandy Hook claim. It just sounds too unlikely. Too extraordinary to be taken as truth at face value.

That is how I see religious people. They are accepting the extraordinary claim with the slightest of evidence. Atheists approach the existence of gods in the same way you approach extraordinary claims by Alex Jones.

That's why I don't see them both as blind guessing or at least not equal blind guessing. The default should be "no this is not likely to be true".
 
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ZenMode said:
Even if you didn’t know Alex Jones’ history of being a lying conspiracy theorist, you’d have some immediate doubt about his Sandy Hook claim. It just sounds too unlikely. Too extraordinary to be taken as truth at face value.

That is how I see religious people. They are accepting the extraordinary claim with the slightest of evidence. Atheists approach the existence of gods in the same way you approach extraordinary claims by Alex Jones.
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I disagree. We can agree to disagree...or we can continue this.

ZenMode said:
That's why I don't see them both as blind guessing or at least not equal blind guessing. The default should be "no this is not likely to be true".
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A blind guess is...a blind guess.
 
ZenMode said:
You already agreed that all guesses aren't the same when you acknowledged that you didn't give Alex Jones' claims any likelihood of being true.
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What makes you think that was a blind guess?

Children were dead. It was reported. Jones was almost alone (except for the morons who follow him) in saying it was a set-up.

Are you saying that my assessment of the Alex Jones affair is on a par with my assessment of the true nature of the REALITY of existence.?

If that is where we have gotten to...let us stop this discussion here. Obviously this thing means so much to you that...whatever.
 
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