Late to the party, but whatever.
My atheism only exists as a standard reply about a lack of belief in the proposition "Do you believe God exists?", full stop. Likewise with my agnosticism, it is only a standard reply about a lack of knowledge in the proposition "Do you know God exists?", full stop.
That theists can't grasp these standard positions is their problem, as I think they're entirely intelligible. As such, for 1), I neither confirm or dismiss it, it's simply N/A. 2) is slightly interesting, except it is, for me, like arguing how many elves Santa Claus is employing.
(June 23, 2021 at 2:10 pm)Frank Apisa Wrote: I’ve known and been friends with many individuals who use “atheist” as a descriptor …and to a person, each of them has one of the following two beliefs, opinions, or guesses:
1) There are no gods.
2) It is more likely that there are no gods than that there is at least one god.
I’m wondering if this is a universal truth (or close to a universal truth) about people who use the descriptor…so what better place to ask it than an Internet Atheist Forum…and what better people to ask than people who use the descriptor?
Do any of you know people who use the descriptor “atheist” to describe themselves, but who do not subscribe to at least one of the two items mentioned above?
Is it your opinion that asserting one or both is universal to people who apply the descriptor to themselves?
My atheism only exists as a standard reply about a lack of belief in the proposition "Do you believe God exists?", full stop. Likewise with my agnosticism, it is only a standard reply about a lack of knowledge in the proposition "Do you know God exists?", full stop.
That theists can't grasp these standard positions is their problem, as I think they're entirely intelligible. As such, for 1), I neither confirm or dismiss it, it's simply N/A. 2) is slightly interesting, except it is, for me, like arguing how many elves Santa Claus is employing.
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard P. Feynman