LucyDuke
staring at the clock
That's a terribly inaccurate description of agnosticism, but perhaps the discussion of why would be more appropriate in a different thread.
Is this the Atheist Fanatics Forums Off-Topic?
- Thread starter Danielos
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That's a terribly inaccurate description of agnosticism, but perhaps the discussion of why would be more appropriate in a different thread.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
I have had a hard time taking these fairy-tales seriously since few years ago. I used to discuss the contradictory points in religious doctrines, but then I realized that by doing it, you descend to their level - you accept their rules, which are of coursed biased against rationality.
The more I know about the development of human societies, the more I see present-day religions as mere extension of tribal superstitions - my favourite quote from BSG is "religion is a savage's answer to why Sun goes up every morning" (something along these lines).
Religion is a bunch of nonsense, blurred ambiguous pile of wishful thinking and primal superstition which is deliberately made to be undisprovable. It appeals to so many people because it gives them what they need, emotionally.
How is it cowardly to admit you do not know and cannot ever know? And hypocrisy? Hypocritical of what? Agnostic literally means "without knowledge." I am without knowledge that God, or some higher power, exists or does not exist. To me there is an element of impossibility and acceptance of impossibility. That is all it means. That seems eminently reasonable to me. Hopefully St. Peter or whoever is at the pearly gates is a reasonable dude.
"To know that you do not know is the best.
To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease."
Lao-tzu
Formaldehyde
Both Fair And Balanced
That's usually a plank of their pseudo-religion. That agnostics are somehow ruining their proseletyzing by openly acknowledging that science can no more disprove the existence of a god than it can prove it.
Religious polls on CFC OT tend to show a 50/50 split between the nonreligious (agnostics, atheists et al) and religious.
Anyway, there's a lot of young people on this forum and a lot of Europeans. Those two demographics are going to shoot the number of the nonreligious through the roof. Even then, there's still a lot of diversity within the nonreligious towards their opinions on religion. You might not even know that someone is an atheist if he's defending some sort of religious thought.
Anyway, there's a lot of young people on this forum and a lot of Europeans. Those two demographics are going to shoot the number of the nonreligious through the roof. Even then, there's still a lot of diversity within the nonreligious towards their opinions on religion. You might not even know that someone is an atheist if he's defending some sort of religious thought.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Why cannot you know? When you say you cannot know, you give up on the concept of rational, scientifically explainable Universe. That's not acceptable and it's dangerously close to a religion.
See, that's what I am talking about - agnostics are believers in their hearts, they pretend to be neutral to keep their chances, that if there's something after life, they'll be eligible.
I find that hypocritical.
Seon
Not An Evil Liar
Not really, I saw many atheists who said "I want to believe in god and something like that, but there just isn't enough evidence."
There are two forms of agnosticism. One side is philosophical agnosticism, meaning that they seriously believe that god cannot be proven or disproven. It doesn't mean that they don't believe in god or they believe in one, they just think that it cannot be proven. a wiki article on agnosticism
There are two forms of Atheism as well. Weak atheists and strong atheists. Weak atheists are people who don't believe in god, and don't give a crap about such discussions, or people who want to believe in god, but sees no evidence. Although this is disputed because the barrior between agnosticism and weak Atheism is so weak (In the wiki link, weak atheism is described as "basically all type of non-theism). Strong Atheists are people who "know there is no god." wiki link
I think I will leavenow, it's been awhile since I talked to my "Strong" Atheist friend about this,so I am getting rusty
(P.S. I guess I am a strong atheist too, as I care about this. But I also think that in real life, people shouldn't just give a sh!t about other people's religious belief. Please only mail "Come to our Church or go to hell" message if you know me well. (I actually do go to Church, it's jsut that I am sick of people giving me all those flyers,and those idiotic evangelists as well. The Christian evangelists actually converted me to agnosticism btw
)Edit: x-posted. Darn
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Closet believers, worthless material.
A rational person is a sceptical person - if you say you want to believe in something, you come one step closer towards making up the evidence - this is what the believers did.
I don't want to believe, I am a sceptic. Unless somebody comes up with a coherent argument and truly extraordinary evidence supporting it, I am never going to start believing in fairy-tales.
Aegis
Deity
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2005
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- 3,970
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Because you cannot prove a negative?
No need to prove negative. Religious people claim their God/Gods influence the Universe in a meaningful way, so they either prove it, or their claim is false. The burden of providing evidence is on them, not on me.
Nylan
Characters Welcome
I forgot who I was speaking to
How does that impact whether or not the statement is true?
Harbringer
Your A One Flower Garden
Closet beleivers?
Im an agnostic in the sense that I am still open and waiting for someone to bring in evidence or proof of the existence of God, until then, the existence of God is on the shelf, while I deal with things that are tangible and I know exist.
So, your point is that religious texts should not be taken to their literal meaning?
Yes, and that moderate Christians that choose to interpret some texts literally and others not are pretty hypocritical...
Nylan
Characters Welcome
Doesn't that depend on which texts are metaphors and which are meant to be understood literally?
J-man
Deity
But who decides which are metaphors and which are not?
Winner
Diverse in Unity
If you maintain a position similar to this: "Existence of God(s) is a theory which, like any other theory, needs evidence to be substantiated", then you're a "weak" atheist.
If you were an agnostic, you'd believe that you cannot possibly know whether there are some supernatural entities.
But let's not take religion so seriously - it is a relict from humanity's ignorant past that sadly refuses to disappear. We don't need fairy-tale beings to fill in the gaps anymore.
Of course, but does the Bible say anything which tests are meant to be taken literally or not?
Fr8monkey
Deity
The Bible, I was told, is the true word of God. Therefore all of it needs to be taken literally... God doesn't use metaphores, people do whan they can't understand things.
Explain...
