Question from an agnostic

[robvalue]

I would agree that it isn't obvious this isn't a simulation, but neither is it obvious that it is. If someone agrees with that statement, then they would be an atheist even when calling programmers "gods". Atheist just means lacking a positive belief in gods; not necessarily that you have a positive belief that there aren't any.

I think the confusion about the word agnostic comes about because people often say "I don't know" as a shorthand for "I don't know what to believe". In other words, "I don't believe a particular statement is true, but neither do I believe it is false". If I ask you if you believe something and you say, "I don't know", you're really just saying, "No I don't, but neither do I believe it's false". If you don't know that you believe something, you don't believe it.

However, you can say, "I believe this is true/false, but I don't know for sure", which makes you agnostic on the position while holding a positive belief. If you have no belief either way, you're automatically (and redundantly) an agnostic.