Quote:
Originally Posted by Chill Cosby
I just think it is totally consistent for the atheist to believe in god, if presented with scientific evidence.
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I think your definition of "believe" is not in congruence with the word's generally accepted meaning, mostly, it seems, because you have a strange need to have atheism and theism as different expressions of the same mindset.
If I was presented with scientific and compelling evidence of the existence of some God, I would provisionally accept the existence of that God as a hypothesis with a strong degree of probability, similar to how I currently think that the existence of a God is a hypothesis with a very weak degree of probability. That isn't belief, that is reason. Belief is specifically something that is thought to be true WITHOUT evidence.
Further, if presented with evidence, I would then become a theist, not an atheist, because I would no longer think (not believe - THINK) that there is no God. That is the crucial difference you're not getting, not believing there is a God is not also a belief any more than not having a donut is also a donut. If atheism was a belief, then evidence would not change my mind, because evidence is evaluated and judged by the faculty of reason, not by faith.