Archive for October, 2008
The core of rational atheism
One of the theists with whom I frequently spar recently wrote the following. The reply that follows is the comment that I left on her post.
Do we truly live in a world that does not need God? Do we have the bird’s eye view of all things to know that there is nothing that transcends nature?
Can you point out any instances in which an atheist of the freethought variety has claimed that we definitively know that there is no supernatural realm? Or is this just another one of your straw men?
I’m guessing that it’s the latter: that you are either ignorant of the freethought atheist position or are purposely misrepresenting it.
The proposition that there is a supernatural realm is not supported by any reliable evidence, and thus we reject it on a provisional basis. If acceptable evidence were to turn up, we’d be happy to re-examine this (or any) claim.
So far, all of the purported “evidence” presented by theists (when they aren’t trumpeting the virtues of blind faith) has not been convincing: subjective personal testimonies, flawed philosophical arguments, vague prophecies, pseudo-scientific nonsense like creationism and biblical numerology, etc.
To explain the available data, there is only one explanation that is coherent and parsimonious: there is no supernatural realm, or if there is, it has no effect upon the natural realm and is therefore meaningless.