(November 3, 2010 at 3:49 pm)Existentialist Wrote: Knowledge of the existence of God or anything else appears to me to be such an unimportant concept it is hardly worth mentioning. I would not even say that belief about the existence or not of God is a particularly important concept either.
To say it's unimportant is just to further demonstrate your apparent naivety as the belief has clear and obvious impact on the behaviour of certain individuals in society. Those who claim knowledge of religious requirements are more likely to behave in ways consistent with that belief, as opposed to those tho are agnostic in belief, you would not for instance see an agnostic theist killing doctors at abortion clinics, or flying planes into buildings as neither have the same epistemic foundations for their beliefs.
Quote:I would say that the position that god does not exist seems to me to be worthy of greater prioritisation as a basis for thought and debate about politics, philosophy, personal relationships, and other areas of life than the position of uncertainty (for want of a better description) or the position that God does exist.
And if all you're interested in is kicking up a debate then go ahead, but holding the epistemically unjustified belief that 'gods do not exist' is not something that is compatible with seeking intellectual honesty first and debate second.
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