The evolution of an atheist.

As I see it, atheism is "the lack of a belief in God" (a-theism = without theism). A logical (or is it?) extension to this is "the belief there is no God".Now, certainly, the difference between "the lack of a belief in God" and "the belief there is no God" is splitting hairs. I would look upon it as the difference between "the lack of belief" and "the belief of lack".I think that an atheist can be very confident in his "lack of belief" while simultaneously being more uncertain (agnostic) about his "belief in lack". Perhaps the difference is in that "a lack in belief" is based on an personally understood definition of God, while "a belief in lack" is open to the possibility of a new understanding or new definition of God.As such, atheism can be viewed as both a "lack of belief system" and as a "belief system". But the daily functional aspect of atheism is the "lack of belief system".Moose

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Professor, geology, Whatsamatta U
Evolution - Changes in the environment, caused by the interactions of the components of the environment.

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"Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will piss on your computer." - Bruce Graham

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"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." - John Kenneth Galbraith

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"Yesterday on Fox News, commentator Glenn Beck said that he believes President Obama is a racist. To be fair, every time you watch Glenn Beck, it does get a little easier to hate white people." - Conan O'Brien

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"I know a little about a lot of things, and a lot about a few things, but I'm highly ignorant about everything." - Moose

First of all, I think we may be agreeing far more than we're disagreeing.Second, in the above quoted, it perhaps would have been better for me to have used the phrase "the related/connected concept is" rather than that "a logical (or is it?) extension to this is".Your lottery analogy may have some validity, but it is flawed (but does a better analogy exist?). The worldly existence of lotteries is certain while the concept of "God" is nebulous - It is hard to even define the possibilities of what "God" is.Removing most of the extraneous baggage of worldly religions, I would state that the bare-bones definition of "God" would be "some extremely (if not omni) powerful entity who may choose to do (hopefully good) things for you". Perhaps the worldly analogy would be the bare-bone version of "Hank", as opposed to the extraneous baggage version found at Kissing Hank's Ass (earlier discussed here).The bare-bones version of "Kissing Hank's Ass":Someone comes to you and tells you that there is this billionaire named Hank who will give you a million dollars if you kiss his ass (in the literal sense). Now there may well be Hankians ("theists") who would be enthused about this. But I, as a Hank atheist, would not believe such good would happen for me. I would also believe that no such "Hank" exists. This is the non-belief/belief analogy. But while I would feel highly confident that no million from Hank is coming my way, I am considerably less confident that such a Hank does not exist. Indeed, in this world, such an eccentric billionaire may well exist.Bottom line though: The worldly possibilities and probabilities for "Hank" sure seem to be a lot better than for "God".Or something like that.Moose Edit note: Red-bolded above, I replaced "might actually" with "does not".Edited by Minnemooseus, : See above.

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Professor, geology, Whatsamatta U
Evolution - Changes in the environment, caused by the interactions of the components of the environment.

​

"Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will piss on your computer." - Bruce Graham

​

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." - John Kenneth Galbraith

​

"Yesterday on Fox News, commentator Glenn Beck said that he believes President Obama is a racist. To be fair, every time you watch Glenn Beck, it does get a little easier to hate white people." - Conan O'Brien

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"I know a little about a lot of things, and a lot about a few things, but I'm highly ignorant about everything." - Moose

I now see I said something other than what I meant to say: should have been: Anyway, you say I'm not making a positive claim. If I had said "(I believe) God/Hank does not exist", would that be a positive claim that calls for "proof" aka evidence? I stand that non-existence is a valid default (I believe they call it the null hypothesis). Is it possible to find evidence of non-existence? Of course not. You need to show me evidence that I'm wrong.Moose