Just goes to show that belief is not really the issue in much of theological discourse, but instead the dogma that often follows - without necessity. (On an off-topic note, I think this also contributes to the dangerous potential of nationalistic fanaticism) Just to make a point there, there is a distinct difference between agnostic atheists and gnostic atheists. The outlook that is being described in that cartoon is that of the gnostic atheist. Gnostic atheists opt out on empiricism and skepticism.
The outlook is that of an agnostic atheist, as it is not an absolutist position and can be abandoned in light of empirical evidence.
There's more empirical evidence that 'god' is a metaphor for the sun, than the actual physical proof of this god existing some atheists give the majority a bad reputation
Actually, I highly doubt God could prove it's existence to someone who chooses not to believe. Anything God could do could be chalked up to advanced alien technology or faulty science. Does anybody know the name of the short story that articulates this point? Could be a video.
I doubt if god created a burning message in the sky reading "I am Yahweh, creator of all existence, and I demand your worship!" that anybody would regard this as alien technology or faulty science.
^Exactly. All god would need to do is do suddenly change a law of nature with an announcement right before it. If out of no where, a voice came out of the sky that said, "I am god and I am about to stop gravity" and then everything started floating, I don't know how any skeptic could doubt that. Or make it snow in 100 degree weather. Or make the sun set at noon. Or stop the Earth from rotating at all. Or make it rain without an clouds. Or any other supernatural occurrence.
Damn you guys are funny. But all that shit's possible... with some kind of super advanced technology. 100 years ago flying was impossible... now we got Boeings.
100 years ago flying was not impossible. Flying has been possible since the creation of the universe. 100 years ago flying was impossible for man without any assistance and it still is and it will be forever until we go through gene mutation and grow wings. 100 years ago a man could climb onto a bird and fly exactly how we fly in airplanes today. No amount of technology can turn off a universal law. There is a Jewish legend that the ten commandments were written so that the letters were hollowed out in the tablets and that they read forward no matter which way the tablets were facing. Optical illusions aside, there is no way to make that physically possible. Only "god" who works outside of the laws of the universe could do that. There is no way technology could put 1 and 1 together to make 3, but god supposedly should be able to. When god shows me one of those things, then I will change my mind.
Reminds me of something Dawkins said; Question - "What would it take for you to disbelieve the theory of evolution?" Answer - "Fossil rabbits in the Pre-Cambrian." Militant evangelical athiests can be just as bad as religious fundamentalists, but at least there are realistic, objective scientific grounds to disprove evolution that athiests acknowledge would blow the theory right out of the water - there is no such self-admitted foil for fundamentalists.
^exactly, because they can always use "god did it" to explain literally anything. But just to clarify, being an atheist doesn't necessarily mean one accepts the theory of evolution.
Dawkins was restating a popular response from the geneticist and evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane (5 November 1892 – 1 December 1964).
I thought as much, I couldn't be stuffed going to find my copy of The God Delusion/The Greatest Show On Earth and finding exactly who said it and such. Cheers for the clarification brother