[QUOTE="domatron23"]
I believe that all theists are delusional. I couldn't hold the belief that God does not exist without doing so. Where exactly have I employed faith here?
dracula_16
Unless you can provide evidence that proves that all theists are delusional, I'm inclined to think that that belief is one that requires faith. The same goes for the belief that God does not exist; that sounds like a matter of faith. I have a hard time imagining how anyone could know something like that.
You were speaking in absolutes, but I think that that's unnecessary when we're dealing with something that may or may not exist.
Hey drac sorry I've taken a while to get back to you. Gamespot has kind of taken a back seat to family and sports recently.
In any case let me respond. My belief that every single theist is delusional ("delusional" here taken to denote the apprehension of a false belief rather than clinical insanity) follows necessarily from my position of strong atheism. If you hold that God does not exist then you can not help but believe that people who hold that he does exist are wrong.
Since that's the case I don't have to specifically provide evidence that all theists are delusional, I merely have to justify strong atheism. It works exactly the same in reverse. All that a theist has to do to support a stance that every strong atheist is deluded is justify the existence of God.
In any case how would you support a belief in strong atheism and the corollary that theists are deluded? You could point out that an absence of evidence does constitute evidence of absence if we should expect an abundance of evidence given the existence of God (and I think we can expect evidence particularly with personal Gods that desire relationships of worship/glorification/submission).
You could invoke the dysteleological argument which argues that the universe displays what Dawkins calls "blind pitiless indifference" instead of purposeful design.
You could walk down that well treaded path of finding contradictions within a tri-omni God or between it and free will.
You could develop an understanding of why a belief in God is a psychological, sociological construct and cast aside the actual existence of the proposed being as superfluous to consideration. Many children do the same thing when they discover exactly who is putting Christmas presents under their tree and why they were told that they would only get them if they behaved themselves.
There are surely more but you get the picture. Basically though if I have reasons to support my strong atheism then I also have reasons to support my position that theists are deluded. And since I have established this belief (not knowledge, I'm not certain about it all nor should anyone be) with reasons rather than wishes I don't think that it should be called faith.
Oh I'm totally digging the confucius sig btw. It's a very Socratic notion although in Wikipedia-ing it it seems as if Confucius predates Socrates.
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