Most sane and intelligent people with religious tendencies (and there are many, although they don’t seem to get much press) understand that if “god” means anything, it is a pointer towards something unknown and perhaps unknowable, and arguing about whether it exists in the physical sense is missing the point completely.
This is just a version of my second option available to the theist. There’s a knowable “physical” world and an unknowable one beyond it. There’s no reason to believe this is the case. Moreover, if you believed something like this, you would be able to say “I’m an atheist about the physical world” and we could all agree on that and discuss whether talk of “something beyond the physical world” is coherent. You would also agree that science has established atheism about the physical world. Which is just my claim.
mtraven,
This is just a version of my second option available to the theist. There’s a knowable “physical” world and an unknowable one beyond it. There’s no reason to believe this is the case. Moreover, if you believed something like this, you would be able to say “I’m an atheist about the physical world” and we could all agree on that and discuss whether talk of “something beyond the physical world” is coherent. You would also agree that science has established atheism about the physical world. Which is just my claim.
Matthew C. - I’m referring to neuroscience.