Who said Einstein beleived in God?

It makes good sense. There are people who don't believe in God but also understand that there is no way to know for sure. Athiests think they know for sure.

 

I think this statement makes a good point. Whether you are a theist or an atheist your belief has to be accompanied with some amount of faith. No one can have enough information on this subject to remove all possibility of doubt.

I personally believe that it takes more faith to be an atheist in light of the laws of thermodynamics, cause and effect, biogenesis, and the fact that you need information to have life. Then there’s the moral law and my conscience that won’t let believe that I’m ok. I’m convinced that I need to be different than the way that I am, but I find that I can’t make a real, lasting change on my own.

I’m convinced that the self-existent God presented in the Bible provides the best solution for all of these things.

I think someone mentioned earlier something about an inherent fear of death in man, in my opinion the Bible has a pretty good answer for that too:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.” Romans 1:18 & 19

 

I disagree that atheism requires faith.

An atheist does not have to assert with certainty that god(s) do not exist. Atheism can simply be the absence of belief in a supernatural being. It does not take faith to say "I see no evidence that God of the Bible/Koran/Torah/etc. exists" . The huge difference between the faithful and the non-faithful is that the believers are asserting that God exists based on faith itself. The non-believers can simply say that faith is irrelevant, and that evidence is required before something can begin to be asserted as true.

While some atheists will say "I know that God doesn't exist" , these people only make up a subset of all atheists.

The vast majority of people on the planet do not believe that Thor or Zeus exist. We are therefore all atheists with respect to those particular gods. It doesn't require faith to lack belief in Thor, only a recognition of absurdity of such belief.*

*credit to Richard Dawkins for this example.

 

Have you heard this line of crap?

"look, there is a building, therefore there must be a builder"

"look around, we were created, therefore there must be a creator"

the above ain't logic, folks.

 

What does logic have to do with faith?

 

Its an argument I've heard some of these nut jobs use while attempting to preach is all...

 

Do you make a difference between atheist and agnostic?

 

Do you classify anyone who has different beliefs than you as "nut jobs"?

 

Sure, but it depends on the context. Agnostic could describe someone who says "I don't really think much about whether God exists. Maybe yes, maybe no", or to someone like Bertrand Russell who described himself as an agnostic in the philosophic sense but an atheist in the ordinary sense. And 'weak' atheist is sometimes used to describe those who have no belief due to lack of supporting evidence but would allow for the possibility that God exists (which overlaps with agnosticism), ranging to a 'strong' atheist who states that God does not exist.

In short, to answer your question, I think the term atheist can cover agnosticism and all flavors of atheism since all those definitions would include the absence of belief.

 

Not at all. Only classify nut jobs as nut jobs.

 

If you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well.

I've always believed that and what you said about Shakespeare right there really seems to make it fall into place.

(It being evolution and a higher power, not the quote)

 

Damn, just when I thought I knew what I am...

 

A little old lady got mutilated late last night.
Werewolves of London again.
I saw a werewolf walking down the street just the other day, had a Chinese menu in his hand.

 

one would hope that the highest clergyman of the Thiamist church would have a pretty clear idea of his spiritual identity.

 

Didn't you hear him? He thought he did and then they went and screwed it up for him!

 

Damn the THEY!!!

 

In short, no, two different concepts.

 

Maybe it is, maybe not.