(September 30, 2013 at 8:29 pm)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: I do not not even understand why people even make this argument, it is so fucking stupid. The reason is because first you sound arrogant as hell trying to dictate the meaning of the word atheist to a atheist, secondly there is no real difference between someone self identifying as a agonistic or a atheist, they both disbelieve.Anything that distracts from proving that their god exists, I guess. The simplest response is to ask them if they are agnostic or atheist regarding all other gods but theirs. Does the Christian leave open the possibility that Allah exists? Does the Muslim leave open the possibility that Vishnu exists? I can't remember a single religious person that I've personally known who felt that anyone else's god might exist. They just saw other gods as creations of their god's enemies.
The only time a theist is concerned with the question of agnostic vs atheist is when it comes to their god(s). Otherwise they are just as much an atheist as anyone else.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
