What Atheists Know
As we have seen in other Atheist Talking Point Articles, Atheism is a philosophy of denial, one of negation. Atheists refuse any notion of transcendence, of metaphysical spirit and dualism of mind and brain. When Atheists cry out longingly for “evidence, we must have evidence”, they do not mean the same thing as is meant by the “United States Federal Rules for Evidence” (USFRE). Atheists mean evidence attained by empirical methods that is filtered through the presupposition of Naturalism.
Any information that is filtered in order to maintain the basis for a worldview is necessarily less information than would exist without such a filter. So the information that the Atheist allows through the Naturalist “info-filter” is undeniably less than is available without the filter. Thus Atheists know less than the amount of information which is available to the non-Atheist.
Despite its claims to the contrary, Atheism is not evidentially based; it is evidentially starved. Atheism cannot even accept many of the witness or documentary types of evidence, types that are approved by the USFRE. So why would anyone be so smug while imprisoned in self-imposed ignorance? Well it starts here: Atheism is not a rational decision, it is an emotional reaction. It is a denial of authority, and a self-declared elitism, based ostensibly upon the Naturalist limitation of access to transcendental facts.
Denial of transcendentals includes denial of the Universality of math, logic, mind, natural laws etc. But it includes membership in the brotherhood of the elite.
So here we have arrived at the answer to the title of this article: “What Atheists Know.” Atheists know they are elite, which, when fully devolved, requires tangibility of all knowledge of facts. So Non-Atheists who have personal evidence of transcendence, who deny only the logically fallacious, and who accept the Universality of math, logic, mind, natural laws, etc, are thought to be inferior in their intelligence because they have accepted information that Atheists claim cannot exist. In fact such information is lumped together with orbiting teapots, Faeries, Flying Spaghetti Monsters, elves and unicorns. Knowing less is just another inversion of Atheist logic, an artifact of "rebellion over rationality"
To summarize, the Atheist actually chooses to know less, being self-restricted by Naturalism. And that's the part that is so important to the atheist: "I, myself, have value because of my knowledge which automatically confers eliteness upon myself.
Once eliteness is embedded, rationality checks out and rationalization checks in.
