Targetted toward atheists

[guff]

Your logic teacher did you a huge disservice because you're not recognizing fallacies correctly.  I would only be committing the straw man if I was using that statement to argue against JMV's original statement.  I wasn't.  I was merely bringing up a new topic (which was not a method of "disproving anyone") because I wanted better clarification on this new subject which JMV provided.

oh okay so you were just totally misrepresenting a position not arguing against it i apologize for offending your college-educated brain 

[Daddy]

...I'm not going to say I believe in those creatures...

but why

[guff]

but why

because he is an open-minded philosopher 

[Hippopo]

but why

Good question.  I often ask myself this.  Many people would definitely not believe in most of those creatures on your list because there has never been any hard proof about their existence.  Also, it seems rather evident that they are pretty much human invention.

However, by throwing out a belief simply because it can't be proven is risky.  To me, it's the same as believing in something that hasn't been proven.  Both take risk.

For example, let's say I live in rural Montana (which I did ;3), and I didn't have any electricity and I've never been further than twenty miles from my home my whole life.  In the area I live, there are only black cows, and that's all I've seen.  A new resident moves in next door, and asks me why I we don't own any white cows.  In disbelief, I stare at this person because I've never seen any white cows before.  Should I immediately disbelieve the existence of white cows?  Well, that would be silly.  However, I've never seen one, so how can I be SURE they exist... 

To you this might be silly, because of COURSE white cows exist.  We've all seen them at some point.  But, to me, a person who's never seen or heard of one, it might be a hard concept to grasp.  Just because I've never seen it, doesn't mean it can't exist.

I do lean heavily on the concept that the creatures on your list don't really exist, but I will not commit to it.  To me, that's ignorance for new discover.  I try very hard to be new to the world and view it through a child's eyes...  To be comfortable with the world is to close your eyes to it.

[Daddy]

Good question.  I often ask myself this.  Many people would definitely not believe in most of those creatures on your list because there has never been any hard proof about their existence.

What about pictures, old stories(omg lol like the bible is old stories xDDDDD and that's good enufff), and recordings of some? Those, even if some are hoax, offer more evidence than we have for "God"

 

Also, it seems rather evident that they are pretty much human invention.

It seems rather evident to me that deities are pretty much human invention: intentional or not.

However, by throwing out a belief simply because it can't be proven is risky. 

Throwing out a belief in something illogical is not risky, however. 

To me, it's the same as believing in something that hasn't been proven.  Both take risk.

It's not in the same. One is throwing out a belief due to being illogical, and lacking proof.  The other is believing something that, even though lacks definite proof, has logical standing and actual evidence, even if found to be later wrong.

For example, let's say I live in rural Montana (which I did ;3), and I didn't have any electricity and I've never been further than twenty miles from my home my whole life.  In the area I live, there are only black cows, and that's all I've seen.  A new resident moves in next door, and asks me why I we don't own any white cows.  In disbelief, I stare at this person because I've never seen any white cows before.  Should I immediately disbelieve the existence of white cows?  Well, that would be silly.  However, I've never seen one, so how can I be SURE they exist... 

I'll take a point from Lawlz's silly 'lol you are all part of my mind rofl' and ask how can you be SURE anything exists?

To you this might be silly, because of COURSE white cows exist.  We've all seen them at some point.  But, to me, a person who's never seen or heard of one, it might be a hard concept to grasp.  Just because I've never seen it, doesn't mean it can't exist.

ok what was the point of that.

I do lean heavily on the concept that the creatures on your list don't really exist, but I will not commit to it.  To me, that's ignorance for new discover.

Much like how I deny the possibility of a deity existing, until actual evidence and logic arises to support such?

I try very hard to be new to the world and view it through a child's eyes...

I try to view the world as a mature, intelligent adult.   

To be comfortable with the world is to close your eyes to it.

Which is why science is always changing.

[YPrrrr]

If you only believe in God for an afterlife, you seriously need to take a look at your religion a lot more closely; believing in God solely for thinking He's going to let you into Heaven and not keeping up with the other parts of your faith isn't going to cut it, sweetheart, plain and simple.

Huh, they always said it was ok to believe in Him for that reason out my elementary school.

[sans culottes]

That's the thing. I'm not even that religious. I go to church like once every few months, but I do believe in god for the sole reason of there being an afterlife. If I die and there isn't an afterlife? Oh well I'll be dead and I would be disappointed or anything since I'll be DEAD.

I just can't go through my life knowing that there is nothing coming up after I die.

When people think of the word faith, they think of religion. But faith is in non-religion as well.

Everyone needs a faith in something, concioussly or not. A christian puts his faith in Jesus and Heaven. He feels secure in his confidence that there is an answer, and it's Jesus. An atheist puts his faith in his lack of faith. An atheist is in fact a believer - he believes that there is no supreme diety. Let's say that said atheist is a typical evolutionist atheist (I am aware that not all atheists think alike). He trusts his faith in scientific proof and feels security in knowing that there is no God and no afterlife.

The agnostic is more complex. I am an agnostic. I'm not agnostic in the way that I'm gradually turning into an atheist, I'm in agnostic in the way that I believe I cannot know whether god and the afterlife are existent. I put my faith in my knowldge that I cannot know.

Everyone's got faith in something, and every sort of faith could be followed passively or defended aggressively.