Pete Enns, Ph.D.: Atheists Are Believers, Too.
The article starts off quite well by drawing an accurate distinction between belief and knowledge. But then….
Christians sometimes claim to be certain about spiritual matters. This can be everyday things like, “I know this new job is right where God wants me,” or more important issues like, “I know the Bible is the word of God,” or, “I know Jesus is the Son of God.”
But Christians do not have sure knowledge of these things. They believe them — deeply and sincerely, and for all sorts of reasons — but they do not know them in the same way that we know that fire will reduce a book to ashes, that there are billions of galaxies in the universe, or that gravity works. Some Christians claim this kind of knowledge, but they are wrong.
The same goes for Christians — and any religious person — who would say, “I know God exists.” No one can know that God exists in the sense of proof or logical demonstration. Rather, people of faith believe God exists for all sorts of reasons that can’t be laid out in a spreadsheet or observed through a telescope.
Atheists are in exactly the same boat.
And so the absurdity begins.
Not having a belief is not the same thing as having a belief of not. All atheism is — regardless of what any specific atheist may say — is not believing gods, deities or divinities. Any claim of knowledge is a question of gnosticism. The author is correct that the agnostic position (no claim of knowledge) is the rational position. Atheism is certainly not a gnostic position (claim of knowledge) as the author seems to be trying to imply.
If not having a belief is a belief, then not collecting stamps is a hobby.
The real question is whether the belief of theism is founded and rational. As far as I’m concerned the answer is a resounding no. It is far more likely that we invented gods than the other way around. There is no evidence for the existence of gods. None. What theists may have are reasons to believe. However, I have yet to hear one good reason that wasn’t based on baseless anecdotes, ignorance of science, logical fallacies or just plain wanting to believe. The reasons given are silly and should be immediately rejected by any rational person.
Also, all people, atheists included, believe worthwhile things for which there is no compelling evidence whatsoever. For example, many people — scientists, philosophers — believe in the principle of uniformity: what we observe now of the laws of nature happens everywhere in the universe, always has and always will.
This isn’t at all analogous. This is merely a useful assumption that helps us develop models to enhance our understanding of the universe. It is not fact or knowledge but an assumption. If we were not to have that assumption, we wouldn’t have science since we wouldn’t expect experiments to be repeatable and we wouldn’t expect electrons, planets and chemicals to behave with any consistency. That these things behave as expected reinforces the assumption of uniformity.
Believing in gods is completely different from holding an assumption of uniformity. Experiments do not reinforce god-concepts. Even philosophically, examination of god-concepts rapidly deteriorates into fallacy and tautology.