Reply #58: I was a plain old atheist.

[ozone_man]

Until I started working out, but I'm still not "strong" yet. ;) I think the weak/strong definition is a bit silly, but the whole idea of God is silly, so maybe we need to combat silliness with more silliness? Atheist works perfectly fine for me.

But as I understand it, the strong atheist can rationalize denying the existence of God in the sense that it is so unlikely that some evidence, any evidence, is required before it can be seriously considered. In science, things are false unless shown otherwise. We can't go around life treating all sorts of implausible things with the same consideration as things that are real, or that have real evidence. Extraordinary claims require extraordnary evidence. There is none of any kind, so we can deny it's existence in the same way that we deny the existence of fairies or other magical beings.

On the other hand, no one can prove that there are no gods, but just as no one can prove many things in life or the universe, most of these things do not warrant consideration, until such a time arises that there is some evidence that might warrant further consideration. So, like fairies and dragons, we can confidently say that they don't exist. Though I do like reading about dragons.

Having said that, I think that many atheists feel spiritual, which is really just a state of consciousness. It's ourself, not God. And many atheists, specially me, feel a sense of awe and wonder in nature, spiritual even, but again it's the works of natural evolution and our ability to sense and appreciate them that are so wonderful, not God. So, in many ways, I'm a pantheist, or during the winter holidays, I feel very pagan and practice some of the same traditions as they did around this time of year. Happy Yule!