(May 10, 2011 at 4:29 pm)diffidus Wrote: Atheism cannot, therefore, be ascerted based upon certain knowledge. Therefore, it follows that the truly honest position of any member of humanity is Agnostic. It is intellectual cowardice, on the part of Atheists, not to accept the rational conclusions that reason leads to - namely, that no definitive statement can be about the existence/or not of God, due to lack of knowledge.Atheism doesn't give a definitive statement about the existence of God...at least, the atheism that most atheists here subscribe to doesn't. Atheism to most people is the disbelief (or non-belief) in the existence of God(s). It is not the statement "God does not exist.", it is a rejection of the beliefs of theism.
Further, Agnosticism is not a valid alternative to theism and atheism, since it deals with a completely different thing. Atheism / Theism deal with belief (i.e. Do you believe in God?), whilst Agnosticism / Gnosticism deals with knowledge (i.e. Can you prove God exists / does not exist?).
To say otherwise would be to violate the law of excluded middle in logic. Either someone believes in God, or they don't believe in God. There is no middle ground. However, you can make a far better statement about your beliefs by clarifying them with agnosticism / gnosticism. For instance, I consider myself an Agnostic Atheist; I do not believe in the existence of God (atheism), but I also do not claim to be able to prove my belief (agnosticism).
So yes, a lack of knowledge is the more rational way to go, but a lack of knowledge simply paves the way for beliefs, of which you cannot say much about the validity of (due to the lack of knowledge). There is no shame is having beliefs about certain things, as long as you can admit to your lack of knowledge concerning them (if a lack of knowledge is the rational way to go).
