Proving Atheism doesn't exist

Do atheists ever wonder Misty the Cat - 584th post - 1 Nov 2004 16:11
whether there is something beyond this world? I can understand people being unsure, people who believe in a God/Gods having doubts but from what I understand here, atheists stand firm in their beliefs. I just find this difficult to understand. Thank you [reply] [Complain about this post]


2/11/04
This is a totally dead argument. A blind alley.
I ask you to believe in 18 foot high purple beings with 12 legs living in my wardrobe.
I believe in, but can't PROVE their existence. But you cannot DISPROVE Their existence, so you cannot DISBELIEVE in them. Or that the moon is a giant goldfish bowl with curtains, or that Africa is a giant frog that has a part time job as controller of Radio Norfolk, or that My Auntie Annie once punched Winston Churchill in the face...
You have to admit the possibility because you have no PROOF to the contrary. That's what this argument says.
But then if I say that they are'nt purple beings today, they're green, you have to accept the possibility of that too, and are forced into constant contradictions until objective truth disappears completely. You are never able to act with certainty because at any time the prevailing orthodoxy may change.
In other words, anything is believable because nothing is provable. A convenient pseudo-philosophy for those who don't like the idea of learning the truth about the universe we live in. Popes and such, who make their living telling us what to believe.
The sceptics are being asked to PROVE that the unlikely is unlikely. Now as things are unlikely precisely because there is no evidence to go on, this is impossible. It is phoney philosophy, I'm afraid, a piece of sophistry generally used to throw sand in the eyes of sensible schoolchildren at R.I. class debates.