Reddit Reddit reviews The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief

We found 2 Reddit comments about The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Reference
Books
Encyclopedias & Subject Guides
Religion Encyclopedias
The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief
Used Book in Good Condition
Check price on Amazon

2 Reddit comments about The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief:

u/Kirkayak · 1 pointr/atheism

You might say something like this to them:

"I still have goodness and love in my heart. I just do not think that I have a good enough reason to believe in a God that I cannot see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or feel. This is true for me, even though all of you have "decided" to believe in that kind of God. If I am wrong, and God is truly good, he will understand the reasons for my unbelief very well, I am sure, and will not hold it against me."

If they are sort of erudite, you might want to lay this on them:

"The bloom is valued per its scent, not per the tawdriness of the taxonomist's trade."

If you can afford a copy, the New Encyclopedia Of Unbelief might be worth attaining. I have not read any of this, but am familiar with the first Encyclopedia Of Unbelief, also by Prometheus Books (1985), which is excellent.

u/sblinn · 1 pointr/atheism

> If someone asks you if you believe something, and you don't know if you do, then that means you don't believe it, because you would know if you did.

This does not follow biologically, as there are (per Sam Harris' research) distinct biological states which correspond to belief, disbelief, and yes uncertainty. (Belief and disbelief are very, very biologically related.) If someone asks you if the 497th prime number is 3547, this "uncertainty" region will likely be going apeshit, unless you happen to have this list memorized quite well. If someone asks you if the 497th prime number is 5, the disbelief center will be all "hells no". If someone asks you if 5 is prime, the magnetic resonance image of your brain will be consistent with the "belief" of this truth.

It is indeed perfectly valid to say that one is uncertain as to whether God exists. This may mean that the person has not considered the issue very much and thus has a de-facto apatheistic sort of disbelief, but that's not disbelief*.

*) meaning a positive belief that a proposition is not true, as differentiated from unbelief which is a suspension of judgement about a proposition, also differentiated from uncertainty.

edit:

> It's practically like someone asking you if you're a cannibal, and you answer 'I don't know'...if you don't know if you are, then you're not.

Why would you answer "I don't know" unless you didn't know what the term meant in precise enough terms to answer (or perhaps you have a faulty memory, or have just woken from a coma and don't remember yet)? Maybe you don't know the term at all; maybe you've accidentally eaten human meat and at the time thought it was tasty, but later found out the awful truth; maybe you don't think you could claim positively that you've never eaten meat that contained human flesh and liked it, and don't really have a firm grasp on this definition of cannibalism to know whether it means you knowingly seek out this human meat or not; etc.

Similarly, "do you believe in God" does require definitions of belief and God, and further answering "no" doesn't necessarily imply disbelief but perhaps simply unbelief or skepticism. An answer of "I don't know" could mean "I don't know if I do, I have memory problems", "I don't know, I haven't though much about it", or "What do you mean 'believe'? Do I act as if it were true? Do I think it's true? Do I think it's likely?", or "What do you mean, 'God'?"

edit2: I don't know WTF I am saying here as I don't seem to be directly contradicting anything you've said. You didn't bring up disbelief. Oops.