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Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
Atheism is a negative proposition: "There is not a God". The argument becomes useless in the absence of a declaration that there is a God. Furthermore, that argument is the core and substance of what an atheist believes. Without that negative proposition you are not by definition an atheist. With that negative proposition and in the absence of everything else you believe you are still an atheist.
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That's a narrow definition of atheism. A broader definition is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. Hence, even if the concept of God didn't exist, atheism still exists, and in fact everyone would be atheist. Perhaps we wouldn't have a word for atheism. But we would still be atheist, just as, I suspect, babies, dogs, dolphins, elephants, chimpanzees, ants, trees, bacteria and rocks are atheist. None of them believe in God.
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Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
That is the reason the Atheists on this site start endless arguments against Christianity. Conversely you will find very little if any threads exposing the virtues of Atheism. And if they exist I'll bet you will find they contain attacks against Christianity and/or other faiths.
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Atheism is the default/neutral state. "Leaded gasoline is bad" is better thread material than "the virtues of unleaded gasoline". Besides, how do you determine if something is good or bad without comparing it to the alternatives? Is unleaded gasoline really "good"? Hard to say, but it's better than leaded.
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Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
My point is that although that material exists it is a very small part of the written material produced by christiandom. The focus of Christianity is Jesus Christ and His redemptive work. It is a positive proposition.
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"There is a God" is a positive proposition, but Christianity is full of negative propositions. By my count, 8 out of the 10 commandments are negative propositions. Going back to your logic then, they are parasitic, dependent on other gods, false idols, taking the Lord's name in vain, murderers, adulterers, thieves, liars, lust and greed for their existence and purpose. But even if those things all disappeared, the 10 commandments would still exist. There would just be no need to propagate them.
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Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
Very few unbelievers are atheists. In fact I can't think of one atheist mentioned in the Bible. I'm sure a few did exist.
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Interesting. Wouldn't "unbelievers" include atheists even if it doesn't refer to them specifically? Who exactly are "unbelievers" then? Are they specifically defined such that atheists are excluded? Today's definition of unbelievers certainly includes atheists, but perhaps a different biblical definition exists. If so, I would not be aware of it.
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Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
Declaring there is a God is not an attack on atheism.
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Err... how is saying there is a God not an attack on the lack of belief that there is a God? (I have feeling this will have us going in circles, so feel free not to answer rather than repeat your answer about positive and negative propositions).