(July 29, 2016 at 10:21 am)Excited Penguin Wrote: Benny, I might have asked you this before, but since I read your last replies to me, do you believe in any Gods at all?

I believe in things I've heard others refer to as God. I'm still going to have to ask you what you mean, or I'm still going to have to answer that I don't know.  From my perspective, you are asking "Do you believe in x?"  I don't know, since I don't know what that term represents.

"God is love"

"God is nature"

"God is the universe"

"God is a concept"

Hardly makes you a theist

(July 27, 2016 at 10:08 pm)Excited Penguin Wrote:

Why do some atheists prefer the label agnostic?

'Cause in a lot of cases, I think, they are simply bullied into using it by religious people.

 In my mind, most atheists are agnostics as it is, I have never ever met a "strong" atheist(one who is 100% certain God doesn't exist), or, at least, not one that would maintain he could prove such inexistence. 

So aren't we all, pretty much, agnostics? Aren't agnostics, in turn, atheists? - And notice here, I'm not appending any more words to the term agnostic, such as theist agnostic or atheist agnostic, and so on. I am simply talking about someone who describes themselves purely as an agnostic. Technically, they are surely atheists as well, since the word atheist, does include someone who just doesn't happen to have a belief in a God. In my mind, the two words are very closely related in describing people, at least in the real world.

Thoughts?



Oh, fuck me, why did I have to post this thread? Fuck's sake... Here come the endless semantic debates.

I don't really know what I think about agnostics.

I was demonstrating that the person asking the question doesn't get to dictate the only possible answers to cover up for its poorly defined nature.

God means nothing to me. Nothing. I have to have it defined from scratch by each theist. When I use the word I'm only referring to some extremely vague popular properties.

See he's just looking at it from an ignostic perspective, EP.

(July 29, 2016 at 10:26 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote: Do you (EP) strive to be as condescending as possible in your posts, or does it just come naturally to you?

My bold.  I'm guessing it comes naturally.  So odd that he can't see there is more than one question regarding God/gods, and answering the belief question doesn't nullify the others.  The pomposity of insisting that everyone adopt his simplistic POV is more than I care to deal with.  I've got him back on ignore just to bring down the annoyance factor.

(July 29, 2016 at 10:42 am)Alasdair Ham Wrote: "God is love"

"God is nature"

"God is the universe"

"God is a concept"

Hardly makes you a theist

No, but it does making me uncomfortable confidently answering a question, knowing that any of these might be considered valid definitions by the asker.  All EP has to do is define what a god is, and I can very simply and unambiguously say whether or not I believe in it.  Until then. . . I don't know how to answer.

EP has improved a lot though.

My position exactly. I can't answer gibberish questions, I can only send them away for improvement.

(July 29, 2016 at 10:55 am)bennyboy Wrote:

(July 29, 2016 at 10:42 am)Alasdair Ham Wrote: "God is love"

"God is nature"

"God is the universe"

"God is a concept"

Hardly makes you a theist

No, but it does making me uncomfortable confidently answering a question, knowing that any of these might be considered valid definitions by the asker.  All EP has to do is define what a god is, and I can very simply and unambiguously say whether or not I believe in it.  Until then. . . I don't know how to answer.

You sound ignostic.