(November 8, 2016 at 12:41 pm)TheHuxleyAgnostic Wrote:(November 8, 2016 at 5:15 am)Irrational Wrote: Your wording confused me.
If I have a belief that "God exists" is true, then I also have a belief that "God does not exist" is false.
But I get what you're saying now.
Like Jesster was saying a belief is either on or off. My point is that more than a single belief/non-belief is in play, based on an objective question, rather than being dictated by a single subjective question.
Objectively: the cat is alive (not dead) or that the cat is dead (not alive). Which means people have a few different options for what they subjectively believe.
X = the cat is alive
Do you believe X is true?
Do you believe X is false?
YN: alive-ist (belief the cat is alive, no belief the cat is dead)
NY: dead-ist (belief the cat is dead, no belief the cat is alive)
NN: agnostic (a person who is unwilling to commit to an opinion about something; no belief the cat is alive, or dead)
In some rare cases, you might find yourself a Schrodinger...
YY: Schrodinger (belief the cat is both alive and dead)
Sure, you can dictate a single question, as Jesster does ... saying "the question is" ... and, only offer two options, but that's the false dichotomy.
Do you believe X is true?
Y: aliveists + Schrodinger
N: deadists + agnostics
Being a deadist and being an agnostic are two different things. It's nonsensical to consider an agnostic a weak/negative/soft deadist, or a deadist a strong/positive/hard agnostic.
Well, we can make this even more complicated by including questions of knowledge. Do you know X is true? Do you know X is false?
Also, do you believe X is probably true? Do you believe X is probably false?
