Is being an atheist irrational?

[Nessa]

[Philip]

Depends upon how much an atheist knows, and how much of his knowledge is accurate. But as far as an atheist being negative toward Christianity - or faith of any other sort - only if such faith is perceived as dangerous or hurtful, can I see it rational to really care. Of course, there are many people who claim all kinds of beliefs that are dangerous to themselves and others. But as to the teachings a faith is based upon, unless those teachings incite violence, hate or danger, I can't see why an atheist would truly care. One would think atheists would see opinions of those with or without some type of faith as being just other opinions - as "everybody has one." The parallel would be me getting exceptionally angry and militant over those who bow to Zeus or whatever other god I don't believe even exists. Of course, there are faith beliefs out there that encourage harm and evil, and so everyone should be concerned about such. But my main problem with other faiths - and NO faith - is that I believe we are to love such people following them, AND be concerned for their peace of mind now, and eternal fate later. And so I see their misplaced faith as a grave danger to them. And collectively, false beliefs based upon whatever false god - or no god - as being dangerous to society and our world. Other than those - someone worships Zeus, why should and atheist care? But I do see that far more atheists are obsessed with Christianity than they are other religions. Many will say that's just because, in our society, that's the dominant religion. But I think it goes deeper than that.

[RickD]

It depends on which definition of "atheist/atheism" you mean.


The traditional definition of atheism is, "the belief that there is no God".

Another definition more commonly used, is "the lack of belief in God/gods".

The first is irrational.

The second, not necessarily irrational.

[Philip]

The old school def for the second one is "agnostic." Of which there are two main types: Those who truly and honestly don't know of any evidence that proves God exists, and those who don't care/don't know/don't want to know/and willfully avoid any exposure to evidences that might change their minds. I think many who CLAIM to be an atheist or agnostic aren't being truly honest with what they feel or sense about that issue. But not all.

[thatkidakayoungguy]

Where's the atheists around here?

[Nessa]

Where's the atheists around here?

Oh, they're here

[Kurieuo]

Irrational or foolish.

[Nessa]

Irrational or foolish.

Actually that came to my mind earlier...

The bible verse that states the fool says there is no God.


irrational
ɪˈraʃ(ə)n(ə)l/Submit
adjective
1.
not logical or reasonable.
"irrational feelings of hostility"
synonyms: unreasonable, illogical, groundless, baseless, unfounded, unjustifiable, unsound; absurd, ridiculous, ludicrous, silly, foolish, senseless, nonsensical, laughable, idiotic, stupid, wild; untenable, implausible, unscientific, arbitrary; informalcrazy, mad; informalbarmy, daft

[Stu]

All the talk these days is of holograms and a matrix-style universe. The problem with atheists is that they never want to say the word God, they always say something like super intelligence. So while everything is pointing towards a creator God they can never admit it.

They can't even prove that there is no God, it is one gigantic for-the-ages guess. In short, yes atheists are irrational.

[PaulSacramento]

An absolute negative is not logical or rational.
Agnostic is the more rational view.

[thatkidakayoungguy]

Where's the atheists around here?

Oh, they're here

Why ain't they here on this thread?

[Kurieuo]

I once knew a rational Atheist, but such always end up believing in God.

[abelcainsbrother]

Agnostic is based on you truly considering a God/god's exist but it is only a temporary position from there it is either belief in a God/god's or rejection. But it is only a temporary position. One cannot go through their life claiming I don't know and be rational about it.

[thatkidakayoungguy]

Personally for me atheism is the least logical of all the god ideas. That's not to attack or put down atheists, seeing how some people would take offense, but there's many ideas that support god. First we have the creation aspect. Now would a universe that came from another universe etc vs the idea of a creator god that gave us evidence (like in cells, or the conscience) that he/she/it (i'm being generic here) created the world make more sense? To me the latter, but I do see how some would say the former, as materialistic philosophy is common these days. Then there's the law giving aspect. Intelligence comes from intelligence. Even non living things work by rules, language is everywhere. How would something non-sentient (the physical world) manage to do that? The only way one gets by without invoking the creator god(s) is to assert nature did it, but as I show nature would have to be the god. Or what about living things? They are programmed to do certain things, follow certain rules, like for humans don't murder or don't rape, or for dogs eat meat or walk on all fours, and yes even with evolution involved it doesn't invalidate this. Evolution is basically change in populations and so the life forms would be designed to evolve if need be. Even a polytheistic view of multiple creators makes sense here, compared to atheism.
Then there are different notions of God, like the Abrahamic vs Vedic views for instance, but these are covered by different teachers and I'm talking about God in general.
Then there are ideas about how did the god get here. Either a: he/she/it came from another, which would leave either multiple gods, possibly equal to each other, or b: he/she/it replaced the older one. But where would the other one go? Gone from existence? There is another idea, that the god is eternal and infinite. This eliminates the need for other gods and where that energy went, and if there were two gods that were infinite, well that doesn't make sense, how can there be two infinites? Infinity covers all, so there can be one only. Anything other than that infinite being would have to be less, sure Christianity and Hinduism teaches God has different persons, but they are still part of the same entity so no problem here. To end the problem of taking energy to create the world and not fall into atheistic ideas of the world being eternal, one can recall that infinity includes negatives as well, so it wouldn't be impossible for God to somehow make energy or keep it the same.
Then there is personal testimony, miraculous events, prophecies fulfilled, Jesus, etc.
I know this is long and maybe my English is rough but that's bc it's almost 11PM and my mind is rushing with thoughts.

[Justhuman]

As being an atheist I don't feel like being irrational. At least I hope not. To presume that all atheists are irrational, as the post-title does suggets, is irrational in itself. There is no one atheist like another, as there is no one Christian like another, etc…