@javeca
(1) Do you believe in God?
 A: Belief. <---- javeca has some reason to believe (Theist)
 B: does not believe . <----- se7en lacks belief (Atheist)

Faith....... takes javeca to (2)

 se7en considers the following possibilities
 A: Maybe there is a God. <----- honest enough, but the invisible and the non existent look so much alike. Cannot go to (2)
 B: Evidently there is no God. <-------- brutally honest but not a positive. Cannot go to (2)
 
(2)Claiming certainty,and knowledge of.
 A: There is a God. <---- javeca is here. (Gnostic Theist)
 B: There is no God. <---- se7en is not here. (Gnostic Atheist)

Now you said:
When the atheists states 'A supreme being or beings do not exists'

This brings me to my point which I tried to explain in my last post. The initial question is belief, not claims to certainty. Claims to certainty are not required to 'not believe'.  Not believing in God (Atheism) is not the same as saying God does not exist. In fact Gnostic Atheist  is a bit of a misnomer imo. Because you cannot know something does not exist unless you can be in all places at all times to know it isn't there.

Then you said:
Belief is defined as "the mental attitude that some proposition is true. For every given proposition, every person either has or lacks the mental attitude that it is true. Beliefs may be stronger or weaker, based on evidence or not, reasonable or irrational. Beliefs are a mental representation of the world around you — a belief about the world is the mental attitude that world is structured in some way rather than another. Beliefs are the foundation for action: if you believe something is true, you must be willing to act as if it were true; if you are unwilling to act as thought it were true, you can't really claim to believe it. This is why actions can matter much more than words."


I agree that beliefs may be stronger or weaker based on evidence or not, reasonable or irrational. However I've already soundly shown that I do not have belief. This nulls your assumption that I do.

(2) being your position not mine.
The bottom line as I see it is that credible evidence of your positive claim(2) will make my position bankrupt. So debating points like this at all are a courtesy in itself when you think about it.


Done with edits soz

Last Edited By: Mar 11 10 10:26 PM. Edited 10 times.