| The certain prospect of death could sweeten every life with a precious and fragrant drop of levity—and now you strange apothecary souls have turned it into an ill-tasting drop of poison that makes the whole of life repulsive. —Friedrich Nietzsche, Aphorisms |
What atheists have in common July 14, 2007
Posted by Rastaban in : Naturalism, Non-Existence Arguments, Supernaturalism , 3 commentsIt’s often said that the only thing atheists have in common is what they disbelieve. It’s also often said that disbelieving in God is just as much a religious belief as is believing in God, or more exactly, that both belief and disbelief rely on faith. All of these assertions are incorrect.
Atheists don’t have a religion — but they do have something in common beyond what they disbelieve. What atheists share is a natural worldview.
Sometimes that worldview is a bit confused, incorporating too much from the still dominant supernatural worldview. But understood clearly, the natural worldview is simply the belief that body precedes mind. The supernatural worldview, of course, takes the opposite tact: that mind precedes body. We see right off from this that naturalism is not merely a refusal to believe in supernaturalism. It’s based on its own specific hypothesis about the nature of the world. (more…)
