I keep seeing that asserted around the fora.
When a posters says that they're atheist, but willing to see any evidence for a deity, the immediate response tends to be that if we're open to evidence, we're not atheist. Or if we've decided, then we're not open.
I don't get that. Well, okay, actually i do. The theist has made up there mind, and interprets any evidence against their conclusion as the work of Satan trying to deceive them. So they're not open to anything that counters the conclusion they've come to. They have a personal, emotional resistance to changing their mind, so they feel that only agnostics would be open to making up their mind.
Atheists, to them, are already beyond the pale.
But we're not. Nothing in the definition of atheist demands that we can never change our mind. For one thing, look at all the 'I used to be an atheist until....' conversion stories. It is possible to make a decision, then revisit that decision when new evidence is made available.
I know who i want to vote for in November. I have decided the best candidate for my hopes and desires, and would vote for them today if the vote were called.
I'm still open to new evidence, such as 'they don't get the nod at the convention.' Then i'll have to change my vote.
Or, they might bow out of the race after Super Tuesday. Then i'll have to change my vote.
Or, evidence may show up before election day, indicating that my favorite candidate has ties to organized crime, or molests collies, or supports invading Iran while we're still at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, or... Any number of things might turn up that would cause me to change my mind, change my vote.
Any number of things might still bring me to a belief in a divine invisible superdaddy. I might start doing drugs and start hearing voices as demons gamble over my soul and decide that i need invisible protection. And to sober up.
I might die on the operating table, see lights, and come back to myself convinced that something that my brain experienced while pretty much definitively being at suboptimal operation was worth following up on.
I might visit the Precious Moments museum while hyped up on sugar and caffeine and determine that UltraCute is the Way of The Universe.
Some creationist may actually put forth a scientific theory and scientific evidence FOR creationism, rather than just nit-pick evolution, which cannot be objectively rejected as fraud, misunderstanding, hype or incompetence.
Who knows? Just because all evidence FOR a deity offered to me, to date, hasn't withstood any sort of scrutiny doesn't mean that nothing ever will.
When a posters says that they're atheist, but willing to see any evidence for a deity, the immediate response tends to be that if we're open to evidence, we're not atheist. Or if we've decided, then we're not open.
I don't get that. Well, okay, actually i do. The theist has made up there mind, and interprets any evidence against their conclusion as the work of Satan trying to deceive them. So they're not open to anything that counters the conclusion they've come to. They have a personal, emotional resistance to changing their mind, so they feel that only agnostics would be open to making up their mind.
Atheists, to them, are already beyond the pale.
But we're not. Nothing in the definition of atheist demands that we can never change our mind. For one thing, look at all the 'I used to be an atheist until....' conversion stories. It is possible to make a decision, then revisit that decision when new evidence is made available.
I know who i want to vote for in November. I have decided the best candidate for my hopes and desires, and would vote for them today if the vote were called.
I'm still open to new evidence, such as 'they don't get the nod at the convention.' Then i'll have to change my vote.
Or, they might bow out of the race after Super Tuesday. Then i'll have to change my vote.
Or, evidence may show up before election day, indicating that my favorite candidate has ties to organized crime, or molests collies, or supports invading Iran while we're still at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, or... Any number of things might turn up that would cause me to change my mind, change my vote.
Any number of things might still bring me to a belief in a divine invisible superdaddy. I might start doing drugs and start hearing voices as demons gamble over my soul and decide that i need invisible protection. And to sober up.
I might die on the operating table, see lights, and come back to myself convinced that something that my brain experienced while pretty much definitively being at suboptimal operation was worth following up on.
I might visit the Precious Moments museum while hyped up on sugar and caffeine and determine that UltraCute is the Way of The Universe.
Some creationist may actually put forth a scientific theory and scientific evidence FOR creationism, rather than just nit-pick evolution, which cannot be objectively rejected as fraud, misunderstanding, hype or incompetence.
Who knows? Just because all evidence FOR a deity offered to me, to date, hasn't withstood any sort of scrutiny doesn't mean that nothing ever will.
, it strikes me that these things really can't be compared.
