Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert Philip A. Stahl

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Philip A. Stahl wrote at 2009-07-13 20:07:06
anna wrote:"It is not correct that burden of proof does not rest on the atheist. Any assertion, including denial of the existence of "x," or "~x", requires logical proof."



Sorry, but it seems you have not taken basic Logic. It is clearly impossible to prove a negative. Thus, in essence, you are requiring the atheist to prove a negative (disproof of God's existence).



Furthermore, the atheist is not "denying" anything so doesn't have to logically prove denial.



This may help to fix ideas for you. I noted in an article published in the Mensa Bulletin, March 1994:



"Let's be clear about what constitutes Atheism and what doesn't. The Atheist - to put it succinctly, absolutely *withholds investing intellectual/emotional resources in any supernatural claim*. Indeed the word Atheism itself embodies this definition: a-theos, or without god.”



What is happening here is not enial or active disbelief, i.e. in making a statement “There is no god,” but rather simply passively withholding belief in a statement *already made* by the theist. Hence, the deity believer has made the positive claim. The ontological atheist’s is the simple absence of belief in it. No more and no less.



The one who ADDS to reality has the onus of defending his claim since extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.



I trust this clears the issue up.  

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