Q: If both atheists and theists have no proof to back their personal beliefs, aren't both groups equally irrational?

Hello, Rayn Kelly, and welcome to Quora!

Gee, let me think for a millisecond here…

Is it more irrational to believe in something completely and utterly ridiculous (that is clearly based on ancient and ignorant superstition) despite a complete lack of evidence or to not believe something completely and utterly ridiculous (that is clearly based on ancient and ignorant superstition) because of that very same complete lack of evidence?

I’m sorry, but if you even need to ask a question like this then you have just shown that you are not rational enough to make a determination of anybody else’s rationality. The only people who can’t see the difference between the inherent irrationality of theism and the inherent rationality of atheism are theists who are so desperate to not be seen as irrational that they need to set up a false equivalency to try and drag atheists down to their level (or, I suppose, people who are gullible enough to have bought the line of argument peddled by such theists).

I know that sounds harsh, and I truly am sorry to have to say it. But there’s really no such thing as “proof” for the non-existence of something apart from a complete lack of evidence that should be there if the thing in question existed. And claiming that atheists are “just as irrational” for not being able to prove that gods don’t exist when no theist has ever come even close to proving that any gods do is just, well, perverse.

Please stop.

Update:

For the benefit of Ronald Kimmons who, in his [now deleted] comments, claimed that his personal spiritual experiences are valid evidence that the particular god he believes in exists, while simultaneously asserting that anybody else who claims that their personal spiritual experiences are evidence of anything that contradicts his beliefs is necessarily “lying, delusional, or mistaken”:

Seriously, I couldn’t make this up even if I tried:

It is amazing what you can argue when you begin with the assumption that all experiences to the contrary must be “delusion”…even when you have zero evidence of actually showing that your premise is true and that contrary claims are therefore delusion.

Regarding your little cartoons, this is a basic matter of epistemology. I am not in any way obliged to assume that anyone else's purported experiences with the divine - contrary to my own - are true. Similarly, I don't expect you to simply accept anything I claim at face value. What I know is what I have experienced. Those who make contradictory claims are lying, delusional, or mistaken. I do not know which, and it doesn't matter. And this is not the same as you calling me delusional, because I actually have contrary evidence, whereas you point to your mere lack of evidence as if that means something.

Even if it were true that I have “no evidence” that God doesn’t exist (apart from the complete lack of evidence that should be there if it did exist), the fact remains that believers in other faiths claim to have the exact same type of evidence to support their beliefs as Ronald claims to have to support his. He is literally claiming that it’s wrong to just assume that others are deluded simply because they have experiences different than yours and then claiming that other people who have experiences different from him must be deluded.

I think this is why, btw, so many theists focus all their attacks on atheists and not on other theists of different faiths than theirs. They can attack atheists for “believing in something without evidence” and claim that they are far more rational because they have evidence for their beliefs. But when it comes to theists of other faiths, they have to deal with the fact that other theists claim to have the same exact sort of evidence that they do and yet, somehow, have different beliefs from them. Which would just prove that such “evidence” is completely and utterly worthless when it comes to actually providing knowledge or establishing truth (which is exactly what we atheists have been saying all along).

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