FA+
Shop
Ahem...(rant rant rant)
15 years ago
Just because I care about the fact that what I am saying is true and will disagree when you tell me it is false, then proceed to tell you why, it does not mean that I am dogmatic.
I don't necessarily care what religion you are, but when I tell you what I believe (or more aptly, what I don't believe) and what that label is called, explain it, and then provide reference to show that I'm not pulling it out of my ass, it does not prove that my lack of belief is a dogma. Nor does my zeal to demonstrate that what I am saying is true mean I'm a follower. It juat means I care about truth.
There is a common misconception about the terms atheist and agnostic. Commonly people think agnostic is a sort of half-way point where someone says "I don't know if God exists or not" while Atheists make the claim "God does not exist"
THIS IS NOT TRUE
Agnostic is a description of knowledge. for example, many people are agnostic to aliens, in that they don't know for sure if they exist or not. It is not specific to the belief in a god. To do this you need a label, like theist or atheist. (the opposite to agnostic would be gnostic, or saying you know for sure 100%)
Atheist simply means you do not believe in a God. THIS IS NOT saying I believe god doesn't exist or that I believe there are no gods. It is a lack of belief. That is all. The difference is in the way it is stated. If I say no gods exist, I would need to provide proof that that claim is valid, and I can't because I'd have to know everything. However, I don't have to know everything to not believe Gods exist. It's up to the people claiming they do to provide evidence for the claim, (which, BTW, would make me change my stance on the subject).
Atheism is a belief in the same way bald is a hair color, or not smoking is a habit, or not collecting stamps is a hobby.
That is why I am, by any reasonable definition, an agnostic atheist. Noone could possibly know absolutely, but I have no good reason to believe there is.
I value truth, but when I tried to make this point in a discussion, I was informed that the fact that I was so ambivalent about demonstrating what is true only proved that atheism is just as much a dogma as any religion. This is simply stupid, nonsensical, and untrue.
I apologize for the giant rant, but sometimes you need to get stuff off your chest, and hey, maybe someone learned something from this...who knows?
I don't necessarily care what religion you are, but when I tell you what I believe (or more aptly, what I don't believe) and what that label is called, explain it, and then provide reference to show that I'm not pulling it out of my ass, it does not prove that my lack of belief is a dogma. Nor does my zeal to demonstrate that what I am saying is true mean I'm a follower. It juat means I care about truth.
There is a common misconception about the terms atheist and agnostic. Commonly people think agnostic is a sort of half-way point where someone says "I don't know if God exists or not" while Atheists make the claim "God does not exist"
THIS IS NOT TRUE
Agnostic is a description of knowledge. for example, many people are agnostic to aliens, in that they don't know for sure if they exist or not. It is not specific to the belief in a god. To do this you need a label, like theist or atheist. (the opposite to agnostic would be gnostic, or saying you know for sure 100%)
Atheist simply means you do not believe in a God. THIS IS NOT saying I believe god doesn't exist or that I believe there are no gods. It is a lack of belief. That is all. The difference is in the way it is stated. If I say no gods exist, I would need to provide proof that that claim is valid, and I can't because I'd have to know everything. However, I don't have to know everything to not believe Gods exist. It's up to the people claiming they do to provide evidence for the claim, (which, BTW, would make me change my stance on the subject).
Atheism is a belief in the same way bald is a hair color, or not smoking is a habit, or not collecting stamps is a hobby.
That is why I am, by any reasonable definition, an agnostic atheist. Noone could possibly know absolutely, but I have no good reason to believe there is.
I value truth, but when I tried to make this point in a discussion, I was informed that the fact that I was so ambivalent about demonstrating what is true only proved that atheism is just as much a dogma as any religion. This is simply stupid, nonsensical, and untrue.
I apologize for the giant rant, but sometimes you need to get stuff off your chest, and hey, maybe someone learned something from this...who knows?
