Underlying Philosophy

What is the underlying philosophy of atheism? None.What is an atheist's fundamental starting point? Birth. No. One doesn't need to know that or have any opinion on it in order to be an atheist. You managed fine before you first heard of the idea of a god, and before you started to believe in one. In my opinion (I can't speak for other atheists) laws of logic, ethics and morals are made by us. Because we've made them, therefore they exist in the sense that ideas exist. Did you mean "believe" or "agree"?But the most important point is that there isn't an "underlying philosophy of atheism" itself. Different atheists may have very different philosophies, or no philosophy at all.

In the old days, Christian monarchs would lay down laws based on the claim that they ruled by divine right. In other words, they did what they wanted to do, and presented a supernatural justification for it. In the present, we decide what we want as the law of the land by discussion, argument, and consensus agreement. The approximate average view of the population is the authority, and this is recognised as always imperfect and ever changing. We don't punish people for a belief that murder is a good thing, we just punish people who do it, whatever their beliefs. It's practical, and diminishes the chances of ourselves, our families and our friends being victims. That's probably the underlying reason that we censure most types of killing and make them illegal, and describe them as "immoral". Enlightened self-interest. There isn't one, unless we make it up, and regard democracy as being "morally right". We don't need to do that, and can just point out that it's practical. The ruling Christian monarchs and feudal Lords claimed that there was one such moral (divine right).You claim that there is a source to morals, the Biblical God, but most people in this country would consider genocide and the practice of stoning people to death for collecting firewood to be the behavioral symptoms of criminal psychopathy, so we have no use for the god of Moses.Here are some interesting questions for you to reflect on:Which country in the industrialized "western" world has the highest rate of belief in the Christian God?Which country in the industrialized "western" world has the highest murder rate?Which country in all the world has the highest proportion of its population in prison?Which country in all the world has the largest number of delusional evangelists who would like to tell the rest of the world what to believe and how they should behave?When you've got the answer(s), I hope that you'll find them thought provoking.

Atheism, like all things that are not descriptions of the world around us, is definitely inadequate as a description of the world around us.

I'm an atheist, and I don't know what "the atheist philosophy" is. Can you enlighten me?

Which gods do I believe in? I might have some ideas as to why, but it doesn't actually require a reason to be an atheist. I was born that way. Belief in anything requires a reason. Disbelief is the starting point, don't you agree?I was picking up on your phrase "the atheist philosophy". It relates to the subject of this thread. I don't think there is a philosophy that all atheists share.

No, it isn't my philosophy. I wasn't born philosophising, was I? Was that what you meant by "the atheist philosophy"? You could have just said "atheism" if that's what you meant.Do you believe in fairies? If you don't, is your non-belief in fairies your philosophy?It's surely easy to understand that it requires no philosophising to lack a belief in any supernatural beings for whose existence you have no evidence.

I wouldn't answer "No". Please don't make things up. If you asked me "Do you believe in a god (or gods)", I would say "no".If you ask me "does god exist", I would say "I don't know, but I don't believe in any gods", and I would probably ask you which god you were talking about, as there are many, so "does god exist" sounds like a strange question to me.I would say that because it is impossible to conclusively know that gods don't exist. Obviously. If they don't, how could we tell?But let me explain about someone's philosophy. I don't believe that the Koran is the word of god, and I'll assume here that you don't. If a Muslim described "not believing in the Koran as the word of god" as our philosophy, he would be wrong.We don't have to philosophise ourselves into the original state of not believing in any particular supernatural suggestions. It's the norm, and it's how we start off life.It is belief in such things which is active, not disbelief.It's common for people from mono-theistic cultures (even many non-believers) to get this the wrong way around when discussing whatever it is they call "god".I'm away for a couple of days, but if you disagree with me, I'll explain in more detail, as this is an important misconception that we see elsewhere on this thread and frequently on EvC.Cheers.