(November 1, 2012 at 9:35 am)TROC Wrote:(November 1, 2012 at 9:05 am)apophenia Wrote: You're missing an option in which God or spiritual reality is experiential, but not necessarily emotive, nor being evidenced objectively.Yes, but only in that it wasn't part of my practical challenge. In my experience people who describe things as you do are easy to have a healthy conversation with (the majority). "apophenia is willing to listen, exchange ideas and consider" is all I needed to know and away we happily go. It's only when I get to the extremes (cognitive; either theists or atheists) that I have had difficulty. Anyone who says "This must be true and factual" (or untrue for that matter) even though they are dealing with a God designed to be ineffable are a challenge for me.
You know, it occurs to me that you might not be an atheist at all, or at least the position you describe isn't classically atheist, as it incorporates significant beliefs about belief that most atheists leave undefined, or settle on an orthodox view.
As noted elsewhere, I'm a big fan of demoting the concept of knowledge, of anything, to at best an unreachable ideal.
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