Posted by Gremlin [65.186.201.54 - dsl-65-186-201-54.telocity.com] on 06 May 2002 at 13.23.13 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: Atheism falls short posted by Sam on 06 May 2002 at 12.15.24 ZuluTime:

One last time.

Atheism noun From the Greek atheos. The condition of lacking deital beliefs.

Nowhere in the term atheism is there any suggestion that we're trying to prove that existing deities don't exist. It's desperately simple, really; the only things simpler are the lower lifeforms who are incapable of working out the etymology.

There is no evidence that deities exist. By the same token, there is no evidence that goblins exist. There's no evidence that dragons exist...notwithstanding things like V.komodoensis, which aren't quite the same as a group of behemothic reptiles which could spit fire but managed to decompose into absolute nothingness in under a thousand years.
     There's no evidence that anything resembling a deity has ever existed. To claim that the universe can only exist because a deity caused it to is exactly the same as saying that the universe can only exist because a dragon caused it to.
     If you don't know why the universe exists, then admit it; but don't bother pretending to know for a fact that some deity, dragon, or goblin yarfed it out one day.