(July 22, 2013 at 5:09 am)fr0d0 Wrote:(July 22, 2013 at 4:36 am)Fidel_Castronaut Wrote: And as an agnostic atheist, I lack any sort of belief in any sort of gods due to lack of evidence. I have no positive proof they don't exist, but the lack of any sort of verifiable evidence does the hard work for me.
As an atheist you lack belief in any deity.
As an agnostic you claim not to know.
The lack of proof supports your agnosticism, not your atheism.
You're stating that your atheism rests on your agnosticism. Which is a positive claim of belief: no proof justifies this belief (to you)
Yet as a Christian, I have no positive proof that God exists, the lack of any sort of verifiable evidence doesn't do the hard work for me.
As a Christian I have belief in a deity
As an agnostic I claim not to know
Therefore your automatic conclusion, that deity is falsified by lack of verifiable evidence, must be false.
So you're saying that lack of proof is not proof of absence? Fair enough. Would you say that the point of being a Christian then is instruction in how to stand before the mystery and perhaps in providing a social context for those who wish to share a relationship around this mystery?
If so, then you needn't be concerned that other people subscribe to other traditions which provide other instructions for forming a mystery based shared experience. I wonder if you agree that Christians need not claim exclusivity or supremacy in their particular social formulation? If it provides meaning for you, isn't that enough? I think a world in which all such groups acquire heartfelt respect and tolerance for every cultural formulation which doesn't endanger you or the planet would be a good one.