I maintain…
… that anyone who doesn’t understand there’s a difference between “I know there is no God” and “I do not believe in God” is an idiot, and that anyone who answers “agnostic” when asked about his religious beliefs hasn’t understood the question.
Michael said,
June 30th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I pretty much agree with you but I used to describe myself as an agnostic and the basis of my thinking at that time was this:
1. we are here.
2. how/why we are here is not known.
3. #1 implies that somehow we got here. it is not rational to claim that we are not here, nor is is rational to claim that we know how we got here.
Thus, it is “unknowable” — the true definition of agnosticism.
Nowadays I think that claiming God is the creator of the universe is no more helpful than claiming the flying s-monster is the creator. Heaven and hell are no more likely, and probably far less likely, than a jillion other speculations.
So, no, of course I don’t believe in God. While this is consistent with agnosticism it is more accurately described as atheism.
Yes?
echomikeromeo said,
June 30th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Too often people use agnosticism as a tool to escape answering the question, or as an excuse (e.g. my Jewish friend who doesn’t want to admit he doesn’t believe in God because he doesn’t see how he can be a Jewish atheist [mind you, I have no problem with that concept]).
Cairnarvon said,
June 30th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
The thing is, “agnostic” isn’t an answer to the question about religious beliefs, it’s an answer to a question about whether or not you think it’s possible to know anything about a given thing, in this case gods.
If you’re an atheist, you can be an agnostic atheist (like most) or a gnostic atheist, just like you can be an agnostic or gnostic theist. The level of certainty doesn’t even really enter into it (which is why I also don’t like the saying “agnostic in theory, atheist in practice” Dawkins popularised).
And yeah, Jewness is (or can be) another thing entirely. As far as I’m concerned, it’s entirely possible to be an agnostic atheist Jew~