RE: What is Your Approach?
August 8, 2013 at 4:48 pm
(This post was last modified: August 8, 2013 at 5:08 pm by The Reality Salesman01.)
And just to be a complete picker of nits...
If you are talking to me, and you are understanding my Atheism as one that believes God does not exist, you would also need to clarify which God I don't believe exists.
Because I don't know everything (Agnostic) I couldn't possibly rule out any and every possibility. What I can do, is reject the Gods that are presented to me, should they fail to be rationally supported.
Really try to get this next part...
If I'm Hindu, and I ask you: Do you believe in God?
You would need me to clarify. Right?
I present to you my idea of God.
You tell me that you don't have a belief in that God, you believe in a different one, but you'd both be theists, as you both hold a belief in at least one God. You couldn't KNOW that mine is wrong and yours is right (agnostic), or you'd be able to provide evidence for yours being more true than Shiva (gnostic).
From our perspective, we don't have any more proof of your vesion of God, true or false, than you do of His existence, we're Agnostic. We just don't have a preferred alternative like the Hindus. We don't believe in any Gods (Atheists), and because we are human beings, limited to our own faculties of understanding (Agnostic), we think it wise not to make claims about things we can't show are NOT true for certain (i.e. No gods exist).
Some people just conjure up a version of God that they're willing to believe in, and then start attributing to it, EVERYTHING. That's another route you can take if you like. Worked for Descartes. Right Frodo?
If you are talking to me, and you are understanding my Atheism as one that believes God does not exist, you would also need to clarify which God I don't believe exists.
Because I don't know everything (Agnostic) I couldn't possibly rule out any and every possibility. What I can do, is reject the Gods that are presented to me, should they fail to be rationally supported.
Really try to get this next part...
If I'm Hindu, and I ask you: Do you believe in God?
You would need me to clarify. Right?
I present to you my idea of God.
You tell me that you don't have a belief in that God, you believe in a different one, but you'd both be theists, as you both hold a belief in at least one God. You couldn't KNOW that mine is wrong and yours is right (agnostic), or you'd be able to provide evidence for yours being more true than Shiva (gnostic).
From our perspective, we don't have any more proof of your vesion of God, true or false, than you do of His existence, we're Agnostic. We just don't have a preferred alternative like the Hindus. We don't believe in any Gods (Atheists), and because we are human beings, limited to our own faculties of understanding (Agnostic), we think it wise not to make claims about things we can't show are NOT true for certain (i.e. No gods exist).
Some people just conjure up a version of God that they're willing to believe in, and then start attributing to it, EVERYTHING. That's another route you can take if you like. Worked for Descartes. Right Frodo?
