RAZD writes:
So what does the atheist believe?
The atheist believes there is no evidence for the clock maker and denies the existence of the clock. The atheist perceives the clock to be simply a series of mechanisms that work together through natural laws to resemble order in the myst of chaos. Whether this series of mechanisms that has been named "The Clock" has a creator or not is unknown.
Why not be an agnostic then, one might ask? Well, it's less of a headache to be an atheist. Why? Imagine if you have to be neutral on every possible fairy tale creature that has ever been thought of by people in the past. You can go ahead being neutral about the immaterial pink unicorns, goblins, witches, and what else have you's if you want. For me, it's less of a headache to simply deny the existence of something because there is absolutely no evidence for its existence in the first place.
If the atheist believes that if any clockmaker exists that it must be a bad clockmaker, citing evidence of bad designs, doesn't that make them closer to the christian than to the deist?
No