Re: Atheism (was "New Age" jms

 Posted on 4/11/1995 by jmsatb5@aol.com to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated


The notion that if one says, "I do not believe in God," that one is
making "a positive religious claim" and thus is religius is, of course,
eminently silly. If I do not believe in green penguins at the north pole,
am I now a believer in non-green-penguinism? If I were to sit down and
itemize all the things I don't believe in, then by your statment these are
now beliefs, and there are an infinite number of beliefs because there are
potentially an infinite number of things I don't believe in, and I'm not
sure I can sustain that many beliefs without imploding.

The first rule of debate and sophistry is to redefine the terms of the
argument in terms favorable to your position. This is what's being done
in the "if you don't believe, you therefore believe" argument.

jms