Strutting one's funky Atheist stuff.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Some Atheists on here have described themselves as Agnostic about God but also as people who act as if God doesn't exist. If you identify with that description, how do you know you are acting as if God does not exist? How do you feel you act as though God does not exist?

[bluehillside Retd.]

Vlad,

Some Atheists on here have described themselves as Agnostic about God but also as people who act as if God doesn't exist. If you identify with that description, how do you know you are acting as if God does not exist? How do you feel you act as though God does not exist?

How do you know you are acting as if leprechauns do not exist? How do you feel you act as though leprechauns do not exist?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Vlad,

How do you know you are acting as if leprechauns do not exist? How do you feel you act as though leprechauns do not exist?

I don't know I am acting as if Leprechauns do not exist. I am not ACTING as though they don't.

I am more apaleprechaunist on account that I couldn't give much of a shit whether abnormally tiny irish people exist and less so now we aren't part of the single market.

I understand though that some of you guys are actually ACTING as though God does not exist. So what then is the act?

[Enki]

Some Atheists on here have described themselves as Agnostic about God but also as people who act as if God doesn't exist. If you identify with that description, how do you know you are acting as if God does not exist? How do you feel you act as though God does not exist?

Yet again(see Disproofs of God thread), I cannot disprove God but as I find no reason at all to believe there is a God and as the idea holds no particular meaning or significance for me, I quite naturally and sensibly act as if God does not exist. I don't 'feel' anything about it, I simply get on with my life without reference to any god. An example would be how I act/fail to act in relation to my own moral attitudes, without reference to this God at all.

[Outrider]

I think you might be misinterpreting 'act' in this sense - you're looking for 'behave' not 'pretend'.

I behave as though God doesn't exist in the sense that I don't work on the understanding there's another life after this one, that there's an absolute moral authority somewhere to be beholden to, or that I owe obeisance or gratitude to something or someone for my existence.

I operate for my own benefit, and the benefit of those that I personally deem to merit the effort.

O.

[Udayana]

When someone acts, they act on the basis of their own reasoning, ethics and feelings. These might be influenced by their belief in a religion or god with particular characteristics, but how would the actual existence or not of such a god or a lack of belief in one have any effect?
   

[bluehillside Retd.]

Vlad,

I don't know I am acting as if Leprechauns do not exist. I am not ACTING as though they don't.

I am more apaleprechaunist on account that I couldn't give much of a shit whether abnormally tiny irish people exist and less so now we aren't part of the single market.

I understand though that some of you guys are actually ACTING as though God does not exist. So what then is the act?

Too stupid to bother with. Atheists don’t “ACT” in the sense that we/they think god(s) exist but pretend otherwise – rather we simply carry on our lives just as we would if there were no god(s). Equally, you cannot disprove leprechauns and nor do you behave as if you think they're real but pretend otherwise – rather you just go about your business as you would if leprechauns didn’t exist.

More to the point by the way is to ask what it is you do differently that you wouldn’t otherwise do because you do believe there to be a god.     

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Vlad,

Too stupid to bother with. Atheists don’t “ACT” in the sense that we/they think god(s) exist but pretend otherwise – rather we simply carry on our lives just as we would if there were no god(s). Equally, you cannot disprove leprechauns and nor do you behave as if you think they're real but pretend otherwise – rather you just go about your business as you would if leprechauns didn’t exist.

More to the point by the way is to ask what it is you do differently that you wouldn’t otherwise do because you do believe there to be a god.   

But the problem is if you don't know there is or isn't a God but you act as though there isn't. Hence the suspicion that someone like this IS acting.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

I simply get on with my life without reference to any god.

And yet you are on a religionethics board. 

[bluehillside Retd.]

Vlad,

But the problem is if you don't know there is or isn't a God but you act as though there isn't. Hence the suspicion that someone like this IS acting.

But the problem is if you don't know there are or at aren't leprechauns but you act as though there aren't. Hence the suspicion that someone like this IS acting.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

I think you might be misinterpreting 'act' in this sense - you're looking for 'behave' not 'pretend'.

I behave as though God doesn't exist in the sense that I don't work on the understanding there's another life after this one, that there's an absolute moral authority somewhere to be beholden to, or that I owe obeisance or gratitude to something or someone for my existence.

I operate for my own benefit, and the benefit of those that I personally deem to merit the effort.

O.

Wait a minute You are not knowing whether there is a God or not...But acting in a way different from what you know, if you are acting as if there wasn't a God.

I think atheists need to be more specific, particularly to avoid accusations of Goddodging or ''knowing deep down''.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Vlad,

But the problem is if you don't know there are or at aren't leprechauns but you act as though there aren't. Hence the suspicion that someone like this IS acting.

How do you know? Am I acting as though Great Redwood trees exist?
No.

Would it be stupid not to explore the possibility of a God if one does not know whether or not there was a God.
Would it be stupid not to explore the possibility of Leprechauns or Great Redwood trees?

[Stranger]

Would it be stupid not to explore the possibility of a God if one does not know whether or not there was a God.

No. For a start there are thousands of god-ideas, none of which (in my experience to date) comes with anything remotely like a sensible reason to take it seriously.

[Roses]

This thread is so typical of Vlad!

There is no verifiable evidence any god actually exists, but no one can say for certain that one does or doesn't. If the god of the Bible does exist why does it stay hidden? That doesn't make any sense to me.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Vlad,

How do you know? Am I acting as though Great Redwood trees exist?
No.

I merely framed your own question with reference to leprechauns rather than to god in the hope you’d then grasp its vapidity,

Seems you haven’t.

Would it be stupid not to explore the possibility of a God if one does not know whether or not there was a God.

It would be sensible to explore that possibility if there was any means of doing so. Problem is though, no-one can provide such a method – you included.

Would it be stupid not to explore the possibility of Leprechauns or Great Redwood trees?

Category error. There’s a method to investigate the claim “redwoods”; there’s no method to investigate the claims “leprechauns”/“god(s)”.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

No. For a start there are thousands of god-ideas, none of which (in my experience to date) comes with anything remotely like a sensible reason to take it seriously.

That's just propoganda. Perhaps I should have said explore your feelings about God. Are they really those of a person who merely intellectually does not accept God or is there more to it? Only YOU yourself can tell that.

From my own point of view. God has unashamedly been of interest to me and I might have remained an agnostic theist on an intellectual basis had other experiences not started happening.

I can't understand, to me, the stupidity of treating a concept such as God like Leprechauns. That seems a bit Childish and Churlish.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Vlad,

That's just propoganda. Perhaps I should have said explore your feelings about God. Are they really those of a person who merely intellectually does not accept God or is there more to it? Only YOU yourself can tell that.

Perhaps I should have said explore your feelings about leprechauns. Are they really those of a person who merely intellectually does not accept leprechauns or is there more to it? Only YOU yourself can tell that.

From my own point of view. God has unashamedly been of interest to me and I might have remained an agnostic theist on an intellectual basis had other experiences not started happening.

How did you decide that "god" caused those experiences rather than the other possible explanations for them?

I can't understand, to me, the stupidity of treating a concept such as God like Leprechauns. That seems a bit Childish and Churlish.

And not true. No-one compares the concepts - what's actually compared is the arguments attempted to justify beliefs in them. You've had this explained many times before now, so I don't know what you hope to achieve by lying about that rather than by addressing your problem.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Category error. There’s a method to investigate the claim “redwoods”; there’s no method to investigate the claims “leprechauns”/“god(s)”.

Even if that is so and I don't doubt it, How does that make me act as if they exist?

I have seen them and yet act as though they don't exist and so I expect, do you.

Leprechauns are small irishmen, that is investigable, They have been found not to be where they are reported and purported to be.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Vlad,

Even if that is so and I don't doubt it, How does that make me act as if they exist?

Evasion - you committed a category error. I merely told you why it was a category error.

I have seen them and yet act as though they don't exist and so I expect, do you.

What are you even trying to say here?

Leprechauns are small irishmen, that is investigable, They have been found not to be where they are reported and purported to be.

Same as your god when he chose to appear in material form then. You've had this car crash in thinking explained many times before now. Why on earth have you returned to your same mistake? 

[Enki]

And yet you are on a religionethics board.

So?

Just because I respond to all sorts of ideas proposed on this noticeboard, doesn't mean I have to agree with them or find them particularly significant. I might find that sometimes interesting arguments and ideas are put forward which are worth absorbing. Sometimes I might simply wish to put forward a different point of view. In this case, my view is that I don't find the idea of God particularly meaningful and consequentially the idea of God has no purchase in my life.

[Stranger]

That's just propoganda.

No it isn't, it's my experience to date. I have yet to find a definition of a god that made coherent sense and an accompanying reason to take it seriously. You have singularly failed in this respect too.

Perhaps I should have said explore your feelings about God.

The unqualified word 'God' is devoid of meaning because it means so many different things to so many different people. It's particularly meaningless coming from you since you've personally tried to apply it to so many different concepts yourself.

[splashscuba]

Some Atheists on here have described themselves as Agnostic about God but also as people who act as if God doesn't exist. If you identify with that description, how do you know you are acting as if God does not exist? How do you feel you act as though God does not exist?

Seriously, why do you bother. Why not just read a book or watch Netflix.

[Owlswing]

Another pile of bollocks from Vlad taking the piss out of those who choose not to follow his religious beliefs and trying to disguise such bollocks as either wit or wisdom and succeeding in displaying neither.

As usual!

And NO, I am not insulting Vlad, I am insulting the bollocks he vomits in place of wisdom!

Owlswing

)O(

[Walt Zingmatilder]

The unqualified word 'God' is devoid of meaning because it means so many different things to so many different people. It's particularly meaningless coming from you since you've personally tried to apply it to so many different concepts yourself.

We are not talking about the meaning of words but the existence of things whether we understand their meaning or not. Your statement seems to me to be irrelevant to any questions posed.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Vlad,

We are not talking about the meaning of words but the existence of things whether we understand their meaning or not. Your statement seems to me to be irrelevant to any questions posed.

If you can't define the thing you assert to exist, what is it whose existence you're expecting people to agree with?