02 Mar '07 23:29>
Originally posted by jammerYes, I'm a 'strong atheist', but I don't claim to know with certainty that God doesn't exist. I only claim that I know that God doesn't exist. I hope that this distinction between knowing with certainty and merely knowing is clear. Most of the things we know we don't know with certainty. For instance, I know that there are no elves hiding in my closet right now, but I don't know it with certainty. It is logically possible that there are elves hiding in my closet right now, and hence there is some vanishingly small probability that there are, in fact, elves hiding in my closet. I know some here, like KellyJay, want to reserve the term 'know' to cases where one is absolutely certain, but this is not how the term 'know' is generally used (you know you are now awake, even though it is logically possible that you are now dreaming). If you want to use the term in KellyJay's sense, fine. I'm perfectly content with claiming merely that I have overwhelming evidence that God does not exist, and hence that I justifiedly believe that God does not exist.
Knowing you're the site philospher, I gotta ask .. are you a strong atheist?
I'm curious to hear your views on this as I know you study Philosophy.
How do you answer the argument that to be a strong atheist one must "know everything?"
I can understand not believing in God, but have a hard time saying I know FOR SURE that God does not exist.
Not lookin ...[text shortened]... be you, a philosopher.
Try to keep your answer under 6 letter words .. i'm a HS drop-out.