Ask an agnostic
- Thread starter ParadigmShifter
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Ziggy Stardust
Absolutely Sane
To a certain extend, sure.
It's fun to discuss, but in life I'm virtually never confronted with a situation where the issue has any influence on my decisions.
Yes, they do know it with all certainty. Faith is sometimes involved, but there usually is no doubt that whatever God they believe in exists.
Why call this the ask the atheist page, when it's really ask a human being page? Why even state that you are atheist, when it is simply obvious you are just like everyone else - you breathe, you have a pulse, you have a brain, and so on...
erez87
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Unlike agnostic, not everyone are atheists. There are theists and atheists. That is why there is a discussion between them.
But who will discuss with the agnostic with Gnostic to god are nothing but stupid/dishonest people?
timtofly
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Is an agnostic someone who believes they can spell, or knows they cannot spell?
There are a lot of people who have no idea whatsoever about God. It has been handed to them by others and their environment. God would be no more real to them, than the university professor living next door. This neighbor is a friendly man, and may even have tossed a baseball back and forth every once in a while. However, unless there is a revelation given that this man is a professor, it may not dawn on this individual until one day at age 19 he is sitting in the man's class in college.
I agree with Ziggy that there is no sliding scale. We are all humans with different knowledge imbedded in the memory net called the brain. Knowledge may be there that we are not even aware of until we face it head on. What we choose to believe may be totally different than what we actually know. That is the reality of the thing we call the human mind, and it's ability to be dilusional or sane, or neither.
There are a lot of people who have no idea whatsoever about God. It has been handed to them by others and their environment. God would be no more real to them, than the university professor living next door. This neighbor is a friendly man, and may even have tossed a baseball back and forth every once in a while. However, unless there is a revelation given that this man is a professor, it may not dawn on this individual until one day at age 19 he is sitting in the man's class in college.
I agree with Ziggy that there is no sliding scale. We are all humans with different knowledge imbedded in the memory net called the brain. Knowledge may be there that we are not even aware of until we face it head on. What we choose to believe may be totally different than what we actually know. That is the reality of the thing we call the human mind, and it's ability to be dilusional or sane, or neither.
erez87
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What does this have to do with Agnosticism?
And god isn't as real as a person living next door.
Declaring non-agnostics stupid and dishonest and claiming that everyone should therefore be agnostic is not a good method of fostering discussion.
Not everyone is an agnostic. Some know the truth that there is a God. Some know the truth that God is other things. Some know the truth that there is no God.
erez87
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I think we need to define truth here.
Truth about god can only be that he either exists or not. It can't be both.
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
It could be a subjective truth. Is it true that it is hot? Questions such as those are often best answered using fuzzy logic.
As are many questions about degrees of belief.
As are many questions about degrees of belief.
erez87
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What's hot? Hotness is a relative trait, it isn't a thing that exist.
Things can either exist or not exist, they can't do both.
What's a subjective truth? Oh right - it's called opinion, not truth.
Truth is absolute, or at the least scientific.
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
What would Heisenberg have to say about that?
EDIT: Probably "I'm not certain"
EDIT: Probably "I'm not certain"
erez87
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So god is a quantum particle with existence as his wave function?What would Heisenberg have to say about that?
EDIT: Probably "I'm not certain"
Thoughtful Thug
Deity
God is an all-encompassing energy? I am sure He is not a particular.
timtofly
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Or is God every single quantum particle and His existence is "un" quantifiable?
erez87
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That makes no sense. What?
holy king
Deity
"Relax!"
timtofly
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God is all. All is not God. God only, allows everything to exist inside the parameters that we call this universe or multiverse. Many believe that if God did not exist, then neither would anything. Many people do not believe God exist, because there is no way to explain "His" existence.
There are people who know they exist because they are the product of billions of evolutionary cycles, although they have no knowledge of beginnings.
There are people who know that God exist and that there was a beginning.
There are people who will either know or just cease to exist after they die, but know one knows that for a fact, because that is what we call future and no one knows the future. Science can not predict the future, but if scientific predictions "happen" then that science becomes a reality. If an individual does claim to know the future they are scoffed at, and then ridiculed after that point in history comes and passes. Or their prediction does become a reality and belief becomes knowledge.
Ziggy Stardust
Absolutely Sane
You forgot to make the case why it could be regarded as such. Until then the only answer I can give you is: Because it isn't..
