Why Agnosticism?

[diffidus]

Sitting on the fence and calling yourself purely agnostic is just foolish and spineless if you ask me.

I don't believe in 'God' for the same reason I don't believe in little red riding hood, or a yeti, or the loch ness monster etc.

Being an atheist does not require faith, because it is not making any absurd claims which require proof. It is the default position, just like the default position is not believing in all what I have listed above.

From the OP's retarded logic it must take 'faith' not to believe in Bigfoot.

Diffidus:

Firstly, there is no such thing as the default position. If there were, then it is more likely that it would be belief in such things as Santa and Red Riding Hood, since children believe in all sorts of things. You can't really have a default position about a concept that you have never heard of. Once you come across a concept, you can then decide whether you believe it exists or not.

The general argument about Red Riding Hood or Pink Unicorns is somewhat of a red herring. Not many adults believe in such things and in many cases the inventors freely admit that they made them up. I think this is an attempt to trivialise the issues and it is a pity since it obscures what could be quite pointed argument.

Religion is different. Billions of people believe in a Deity of one form or another and provide evidence in the form of written statements such as the Gospels of the New Testament. To refute these people requires knowledge of the facts, otherwise, all you are saying is that you believe thay are wrong.

Sitting on the fence, as you call it, is actually a very uncomfortable place to be. There is something in the Human pysche that likes resolution. It is frustrating not to be able to resolve an issue. That is why the Agnostic position is actually quite courageous, since anyone who subscribes to it, remains true to the actual state of Human knowledge and refuses to be bullied into taking a, possibly, erroneous view.