Atheism

[kellychaos]

Originally Posted by waterwitch

that's not what i mean...you can't tell them, "you're wrong" if they believe that god exists, can you? because you have no proof...no religion is right yet, no one can accuse someone else of having wrong ideas or beliefs...it'd be blatant hypocrisy if they could...

I agree. That's one of the basics of logic. Beliefs are never wrong ... they just "are" ... period. The proof of the existence of God by Immanuel Kant, one of the most brilliant philosophers of metaphysics I have ever read, really amounts to saying that since God is part of the transcendental area of human thought which mankind's brain is not "formatted" to understand. The mind is supposedly governed by these transcendental maxims which form a matrix or framework for our logical thoughts. We, as people, are not meant to consciously understand these. Our understanding is in the empirical rrealm with which science deals. He proves his point by avoiding it really. It's one of the most disapointing parts of a life's work of philosophy which otherwise I truly admire. Another way to look at it would be in the way of a more or less vacuous proof. You can't prove that he absolutely doesn't exist so, until then, I will rely on my faith and say he does. That, to me, is sort of a "sitting on the fence" sort of cop out to me, though. I have more respect for a person of strong faith (whatever religion) than someone who's just hedging their bets due to fear of the alternative.