what does agnostic mean then?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Not sure whether or not God exists... but I'm sure you've figured that out between January 10th and now.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I always thought it meant you didn't care.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Nope.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Martin Amis summed it up quite nicely last year... "I'm an agnostic, which is the only rational position. It's not because I feel a God or think that anything resembling the banal God of religion will turn up. But I think that atheism sounds like a proof of something, and it's incredibly evident that we are nowhere near intelligent enough to understand the universe...." Basically, it means that since there isn't any indisputable evidence for or against the existence of a deity then to hold a concrete position on either side of the debate is rather short sighted. To have complete faith on either side of the matter is frankly ignorant. That's just my opinion of course and everybody is entitled to hold their own.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Thats pretty much what I beleive.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Same. I'm completely atheistic towards certain gods, but agnostic towards others that can't really be disproved.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

That doesn't really make sense. An atheist doesn't believe in any gods.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It IS possible to be what is called an 'agnostic atheist'.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

But atheism isn't another religion. The debate is not "believing in atheism or in God", it's believing in God or not believing at all. You either believe or you don't, and agnostism is being unsure. There doesn't need to be evidence for atheism, because it doesn't necessarily mean belief in evolution, it just means no God. You can't prove a negative. In this debate, you can either take 0 evidence for God and believe in God, take the 0 evidence and disbelieve, or be agnostic - not know yet.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The way you describe atheism superior to theism is just a play on the language. I could say something like "No, theism is just the lack of a belief in the nonexistence of God and atheism is the belief in that. You can take the 0 evidence for God's nonexisistance and... (assuming there is 0 evidence for either side, which is kind of ignorant of all the books that have been written by atheists and theists alike). Also, you can prove a negative. There are tons of proven, negative things.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

There IS NO EITHER SIDE FOR EVIDENCE TO EXIST ON! It's either evidence of religion or it isn't anything. You can't disprove that something exists. "Ohey, look at this photo of a raccoon, it completely disproves that there may be aliens"? I didn't even want to describe atheism superior, my entire goal was to convince you lot that atheism isn't just another religion! That's like calling educated people and ignorant people "knowers of knowledge and knowers of wumbology".

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I don't know where the idea that you can't prove something's nonexistence comes from... it's easy to prove things don't exist: I can prove beyond any reasonable doubt that French toast sitting on my counter doesn't exist by a simple proof by contradiction; same with my hot tub which doesn't exist. And by higher reasoning, I could prove, say, that there doesn't exist square with an area of 3m^2 and a side length of 2m anywhere.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

That's nice how you took one sentence from my entire two-comment explanation with possibly a fault and only focused on it. Do you admit I'm right about everything else, then? And God isn't a cube, and neither is he visible (I think), also with all those super-powers he's got like floating in clouds and whatnot you cannot disprove him by logic or math; believing in him against all laws of physics and science is what faith is. There can't be evidence to say there isn't a God, because it's something not within the grasp of Earth or our scientists in general. No one can truly KNOW - that's why it's called faith and why so many different opinions exist on the matter. Faith and non-faith are the two sides to the debate, and no one knows which side is true so they go by instinct and choose a side. Agnostics are people who do not want to choose, or can't.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The argument hinged on that so that was all I really felt the need to respond to. You can disprove things, but haven't done so with God, yet believe that he probably doesn't in practice anyways. Just like neither of us might be able to disprove Islam offhand, but both of us don't practice it anyways, risking going to hell if we're wrong, hence the leap of faith. If you truly had no faith whatsoever, you would have to practice Christianity (and maybe Islam, and anything else that you can't easily disprove that would have negative consequences) anyways just in case, i.e. Pascal's Wager.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It's even more annoying when people think agnosticism is akin to atheism, and so they say "Ah so you don't believe in God?" Like fuck, just because they both start with 'a' doesn't mean they're the same.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I usually get "The fuck is that?" But I especially hate when people assume agnostic is the same thing as atheist. Not even close dumbass! And I'm a proud agnostic ;P

by Anonymous 13 years ago

About fucking time this post got homepaged :D

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Or when they ask "Oh, you mean atheist?"

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I have a friend who is an atheist, and his view on life is that he doesn't care. He says that he doesn't know, I don't think he wants to know. And frankly he says that he just doesn't care. As for me... I religiously live by other things, like quotes, rather than higher powers. I believe the bible is just an mass produced fairy-tale that people want to believe is real, because they don't know how else to except existence. Atheists don't care about how they came to be, Agnostics know that the came from somewhere, but don't believe their a creation of a higher power, and Religious people believe they were created by, and from a higher power. Simple as that.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'm Agnostic and I don't care how I "came to be", though. I don't think it is possible to know, so I'm not going to waste my time worrying about it.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

i'm not saying i spend all my time wondering. i'm just saying that my view as an agnostic, and my friends view as an atheist is very different.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

They're probably asking questions like that because they're curious as to whether or not you lean to one side of the argument. It's a legitimate question, I think.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

yeah, and because a lot of people who are 'atheist' or 'agnostic' are actually using the terms wrong anyways

by Anonymous 13 years ago