No it's not a faith and it does not assume more knowledge than we can have.
Atheism is basically a hard sort of agnosticism. Most atheists break under the "are you SURE?" and admit they could be wrong. It's not a faith--it's a weighted bet. I'd wager there isn't a God, I could be wrong and have lost wagers I've made, but it's not a faith. It's a *lack* of faith--in theism.
If all the arguments for the claim: "I went to the beach last week" fail to meet a basic standard of believability, then it's not a faith based belief to *not* believe I went to the beach last week. I'm not believing you did not Go, I'm not believing you did.
How could the default for belief in anything not be "no"? Even yourself? The thing about yourself is, you've got the best evidence to back it up--first hand experience. But the further you get from yourself, the harder it is to prove any other thing exists. Descartes demon and all. /coffee cup finished.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-07-06 07:59 pm (UTC)Atheism is basically a hard sort of agnosticism. Most atheists break under the "are you SURE?" and admit they could be wrong. It's not a faith--it's a weighted bet. I'd wager there isn't a God, I could be wrong and have lost wagers I've made, but it's not a faith. It's a *lack* of faith--in theism.
If all the arguments for the claim: "I went to the beach last week" fail to meet a basic standard of believability, then it's not a faith based belief to *not* believe I went to the beach last week. I'm not believing you did not Go, I'm not believing you did.
How could the default for belief in anything not be "no"? Even yourself? The thing about yourself is, you've got the best evidence to back it up--first hand experience. But the further you get from yourself, the harder it is to prove any other thing exists. Descartes demon and all. /coffee cup finished.