I actually agree with Richard Dawkins on this one. Agnostics are the ones with the intellectual cowardice. I believe agnosticism holds back on scientific progress as much as religion does. Agnostics act as if there is some knowledge that can never be gained and therefore will not even attempt to, and will deny all evidence of it, and will enter into situations already set with the assumption that the answer can't be known. That's hardly a rational or logical approach.
There is already enough to make the existence of a higher being an irrelevant matter, notably the lack of a need of one for the universe to function, but that's not the end of it. We could go on for days about the logical and rational reasoning that disproves their existence.
I think that everything can be learned, given time. And just because we don't know how to know something just yet, doesn't give us the right to arrogantly claim that no one can ever know it. From my experience, atheists tend to be far more open to new ideas and new information than theists or agnostics ever are. From what I've observed, atheists fit their theories around the observed facts and don't make assumptions about what can or can't be known and therefore leave themselves open to more possible explanations for a given set of facts. Agnostics tend to deny many things no matter how strong the evidence that tries to explain something that is currently unexplained. And theists of course tend to twist the facts around the theories instead.
To me, agnosticism is little more than a blind denial of reality, and a last desperate grasp of desire that there'd be some sort of after life and/or higher being to give meaning to the world and and to explain things we don't yet understand. Basically exactly what Richard Dawkins said, they're fence sitters. They say they're being the more rational ones, but then go and make claims that it's impossible to know almost anything. If that were the case we could argue for the existence of any number of mystical creatures. I've always wanted a unicorn.
There is already enough to make the existence of a higher being an irrelevant matter, notably the lack of a need of one for the universe to function, but that's not the end of it. We could go on for days about the logical and rational reasoning that disproves their existence.
I think that everything can be learned, given time. And just because we don't know how to know something just yet, doesn't give us the right to arrogantly claim that no one can ever know it. From my experience, atheists tend to be far more open to new ideas and new information than theists or agnostics ever are. From what I've observed, atheists fit their theories around the observed facts and don't make assumptions about what can or can't be known and therefore leave themselves open to more possible explanations for a given set of facts. Agnostics tend to deny many things no matter how strong the evidence that tries to explain something that is currently unexplained. And theists of course tend to twist the facts around the theories instead.
To me, agnosticism is little more than a blind denial of reality, and a last desperate grasp of desire that there'd be some sort of after life and/or higher being to give meaning to the world and and to explain things we don't yet understand. Basically exactly what Richard Dawkins said, they're fence sitters. They say they're being the more rational ones, but then go and make claims that it's impossible to know almost anything. If that were the case we could argue for the existence of any number of mystical creatures. I've always wanted a unicorn.
"Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly." — Albert Einstein
A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it.
There can be no triumph without loss. No victory without suffering. No freedom without sacrifice.
A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it.
There can be no triumph without loss. No victory without suffering. No freedom without sacrifice.
