Agnostics

[FatAndFaithless]

Well, one could answer "no" to both "Do you believe the cat is dead?" AND "Do you believe the cat is alive?"

That's right.  And I think some here would do that-- "I have no active belief about either, so no and no."

If I flip a coin, and ask you if you believe it's heads, you could answer "No.  I have no belief about the state of the coin, since I have no information about its state."  But my way of looking at it is that I hold a conditional belief-- FOR SURE I believe one of the two is true, and I'm simply agnostic about which one that happens to be.


Or try this on for size: in the case of God, most ask, "Do you believe in God?" anticipating a no answer and saying "You're an atheist."
However, if you ask "Do you believe in not-God ?" things look different.  Would you say anyone who lacks the belief in not-God is a theist?  I doubt it.

When you ask me the first question, I automatically ask its negative correlate.  The results is either that I'm both an atheist and a theist, or both, or neither.  In other words, the answer is undefined.  Given this, "I don't know" is simpler to me.

Well..not exactly.  The inverse to  the question "Do you accept as true or likely true that a god exists?" is "Do you accept as true or likely true that no Gods exist?"

I would answer no to both of them.  I am both an atheist and an a-no-gods-exist-ist (we don't have a very good term for this position so far).  Because I think neither side has met their burden of proof. 

Just because you don't accept the statement "God exists" does not mean that you DO accept the statement "God does not exist."  Atheism is just the neutral position.  I don't think we can know anything about the nature of God (or his lack thereof), which is why I'm an agnostic.  I'm also an atheist because I don't think the God claim has met its burden of proof.  I'm also an a-no-gods-exist-ist (some call this 'strong atheism' but I think that's just a confusing term), because I also don't think the people that say God doesn't exist have not met their burden of proof.

Agnosticism isn't a middle ground between two claims.  And atheism is simply a response to a single claim - that "God(s) exist."  

If you honestly don't know what you believe, that's fine, and nobody can force you to use a term you don't like (hell, terms change over time anyway), but when it comes to the concepts, let me ask you a couple questions.  You'll note that I'm NOT attaching terms or labels to your answers.

Do you accept as true or likely true that God(s) exist?  (and if you want a more specific example in the case of 'what do you mean by God', let's say the God presented in the Bible).

Do you accept as true or likely true that God(s) do NOT exist?

Do you accept as true or likely true that we can ascertain absolute knowledge about the nature of God(s)?



My answers are no, no, and no.  The labels that describe those answers for ME, are atheist, a-strong-atheist (still don't like this term), and agnostic. 

And hey, again, if you want to answer "I don't know" for every one of those questions, I can't stop you, but the discussion just kinda ends there then.  I'm not gonna beat you over the head with labels.