Thinking Atheist?

News24.com publishes articles which a person apparently can upload directly and without editing. Here is an article which is signed only as "Thinking Atheist", which might lead one to believe that some actual Atheist thought had been produced in defense of their worldview basis. The article is not long, so the revelations contained might be pithy and conveniently logical and thus easily absorbed into a logical philosophy. Let's see.

First we encounter the Many Religions argument, a disappointment. Many Religions is a very basic failure, being based on the fallacy of False Association: that many solutions to a problem are false does not mean that there is no valid, true solution.

This person calls him/herself “thinking”, yet s/he apparently is working inside the Atheist Void, where the authority of fallacy has no meaning. One should actually study how to think first, and then do the thinking properly. Thinking Atheist actually has trouble reconstructing the basic overtures of primary Atheism. It does not matter how many different religions exist on this planet; that fact does not entail a conclusion that “all” are false.

The next example of this is the claim that a large number of galaxies and stars has some bearing on the existence of god. This mistake is made in the attempt to attack generalized theology by attacking some Christian’s concept of being the only one in the universe capable of having a deity – or some such. But that obviously has no bearing on the existence of a creating agent, or on its ability to interface with humans. Attacking ridiculous notions is easy. And that seems to be the thrust of Thinking Atheist.

Says Thinking,

” However, should other intelligent life exist then to me it cuts a hole in the theory that a Christian, Muslim or Hindu god exists because this other form of life could not possible subscribe to it.”

This is patently absurd. What the creating agent might or might not be capable of doing is perfectly not known to “Thinking”, who made up this false factoid out of nothing whatsoever. Further, a creating agent capable of interfacing with humans is not in the least affected by this claim, much less damaged in any manner.

Undaunted, Thinking continues:

” Not to mention the fact that all theists are squabbling over whose god is actually real. Proof of life out there will be proof that our and their religions (should they subscribe to a definitive god) are false.”

This is another completely absurd claim; Thinking has no clue as to what might happen in other galaxies, under the same deity, in different situations. This is abysmal thinking, Thinking.

Thinking forges on:

” Now bear with me because here I’m going to delve into a bit of philosophy. Proof of life out there may disprove a micro explanation of god but not necessarily the idea of a god. To clarify, as an atheist I do not believe in the supernatural. I reject the claim that gods exist. Without religion there would be no atheism. Calling our philosophy a religion is akin to calling not playing golf a hobby or calling being healthy a disease. I have come to the conclusion that since the logical man cannot yet define the answers of our origin.”

Thinking has muddied up his own philosophy by injecting a rejection based on nothing whatsoever. Now that is a typical Atheist move, but it is not a thoughtful move toward a coherent philosophy. Not only does Thinking have no concept of the rules for thinking, but Thinking also does not know what entails a rational philosophy (hint: a reason for thinking a thought is required).

Further, regarding the tired old clichés regarding the analogy of not-golfing with Atheism, those who don’t golf don’t write irrational articles claiming that golf doesn’t exist, and proudly announcing their a-golfism and how they came into that belief.

” Since he still cannot be sure of the stars and the bottoms of our oceans then how is it that religion, to the logical mind, believes that it can do all this with its quasi mystic imperatives and the contradictions scrawled in its ancient and outdated codex’s?”

This view of religion is the warped caricature of the prejudiced, not the view of an objective viewer. Very, very few believe that religious, ecclesiastical writings of men attempting to comprehend a deity which they acknowledge is outside of material comprehension will reveal the secrets of the bottom of the ocean or any other material knowledge regarding the physics or anatomy of the universe. This claim is created merely to be attacked, a straw man if ever there was one.

”We as the human race use good judgement and logic every day of our lives when it comes to survival, we know not to cross the road in traffic, not to stick our fingers where it burns but when it comes to the most important aspect of our lives theists throw caution to the wind and follow with blind faith? Logic be damned. Would you close your eyes whilst driving on the highway because you have faith that you may NOT crash?”

Having rebelled against the authority of religion as a teen, this individual seemingly absorbed none of the meaning which was available to him. The rational arguments of the Thomasians, the arguments from cause, from existence out of nothing, all deductions are ignored as if they do not exist for Thinking, as s/he attacks the false notion of “blind faith”.

In fact, Thinking gives no indication that s/he realizes the limitations of his/her own knowledge base, the Godellian limits of realizable validity of his/her own “philosophy”, such as it is. To this point, well into the article, Thinking has given no actual facts which demand Atheism in response. All that Thinking has done is to attempt to smear certain concepts which s/he attaches to Christianity, with weak digs at Islam and Hinduism.

Where is the “Logic” which Thinking seems to think goes away with theism? There must be some Logic, mustn’t there? ”Logic be damned”, Thinking screeches while attacking theists (and while ignoring their deductive arguments) – so where, exactly, is it, this Atheist Logic? Surely a person calling him/herself "Thinking" would produce some rational deduction which demonstrates clearly that there can be no creating agent?

But (finally) we get to the part of the article where the rationality of Thinking is on public display:

” I believe that the real answers are far beyond our expectations, far more exciting, far more revealing and far less threatening. My logical mind tells me that even the conative [sic] word “god” is subjective and can be extremely misconstrued when you get right down to it. What is god? Christian theists say it’s a bearded madman in the sky who waved a magic wand and in seven days the world was as it is.”

Thinking is now in hostile bullshit mode. Christian theists say no such thing. We all know what Christianity entails, and it is not the b.s. excreted here by “Thinking”. It gets worse, still:

” Do they have the proof? Not yet, only blind faith and therein lies the problem.

Thinking has betrayed his own lack of knowledge, and has made a universal statement which he cannot support, to wit: if proof is found in deduction, then it exists; if proof must be material, then it is a false requirement, the fallacy of Category Error. It appears to me that Thinking has no concept of fallacies, much less a concept of properly formed and grounded deductive proofs.

The idea of god can be open to interpretation…”

Only by those who deny the actual definition of a creating agent. This point is of no value in any argument for Atheism.

”…it can be theorised that he looks like a flying spaghetti monster, it can be theorised that god is pseudonym for pure energy.”

No, actually it cannot be so theorized. The creating agent would have existed outside of mass/energy and space/time, so these are just more bullshit thrown out in order to be shot down: they are Fallacies of False Analogies, and are used as both Straw Men and Red Herrings.

” I cannot accept the narrow minded and unchanging explanations they give me.”

An outright lie; no theist gave him those analogies. Well the part about him “not accepting explanations” is true, but he doesn’t recognize the existence of actual theist arguments and he makes up several phony arguments instead.

”It is true that the idea of god gives comfort to many it gives them hope. But I believe as humanity is nearing that time where we openly look to the evidence that suggests the contrary we will begin to abandon our addiction to the supernatural and face reality. I accept that this life is all I have, it may be too much for the theists to grasp that when their loved ones die, that’s it. No reunion in heaven.”

It is apparently too much to ask for actual evidence or proof of this assertion which is made as a truth statement. While s/he refers to “evidence” in the same paragraph, where is it? Where is the evidence upon which this conclusion is made? Even a deduction, in the absence of empirical data? None. Nothing. There is only the arrogation of evidence, not a shred of actual evidence. Thinking has completely violated any respect for his/her self-appellation as s/he arrogates intellect to him/herself, without any evidence of actual thought.

”I can sympathise with the hope it gives, I respect its place in our history. But I cannot regress to its archaic truths. In history, faith is continuously replaced with knowledge.”

This is Scientism at its most ignorant; science cannot even prove its own integrity by using science. Science cannot prove anything whatsoever about subjects which are non-falsifiable, including assertions which are in regards to non-material subjects. Science worship is the lowest form of religious belief.

The idea that science will ever tell us how we should behave is not merely absurd, it is a perversion of the concept of science itself, and when made as a truth statement - especially a truth statement upon which a worldview depends - it leads to total irrationality in the proponent.

Thinking is both ignorant of rational thought processes and yet arrogant simultaneously. This article is an exercise in post hoc rationalization after having, as an adolescent, rejected the authority of some sort of ecclesiasticism. Thinking up premises to support a prejudiced conclusion is not in any manner a form of “thinking”. It is a form of prejudice. Thinking Atheist has obviously flattered him/herself with the appellation “thinking”, and in the absence of any evidence, displays the characteristics of the blind belief s/he decries. This is internally contradictory, and of course that is irrational.