RE: POLL: What's your definition of an agnostic? Atheist?
May 31, 2010 at 6:48 pm
(This post was last modified: May 31, 2010 at 6:54 pm by rax.)
(May 31, 2010 at 6:34 pm)Tiberius Wrote: Yes, but now you are confusing agnosticism with a purely atheistic version of agnosticism. Being an agnostic means you do not have knowledge regarding the existence of Gods as you said, but it does not mean you automatically disbelieve in Gods, which you implied by saying that "an agnostic is an idiot who doesn't realize he's actually an atheist".
Just because you don't have knowledge regarding something's existence, does not rule out the possibility of having belief in something's existence. There are plenty of agnostic theists out there; I'd wager that most theists would be classified as agnostic theists if you asked them to clarify their beliefs (and stance on religious knowledge) properly.
Ya, I totally agree with you. I guess I should have clarified a little more. I'm not talking about people who are 'agnostic' in the correct sense of the word. I'm talking about people who claim agnosticism with regard to their belief. I'm not talking about agnostic atheists or agnostic theists, but people who simply say they are agnostic, then go on to say that atheism is stupid because you can't know with certainty that God doesn't exist.
They call themselves agnostic because they define agnosticism like this:
Their definition of agnosticism = weak atheism.
Their definition of all atheism = strong atheism.
Their definitions are wrong, and so they are idiots. Bill Maher, who is awesome by the way, is an example of someone that does this. He's an atheist in every sense of the definition but if you were to call him that to his face he'd say "I'm not an atheist, I'm an agnostic, you can't know with certainty that God doesn't exist like atheists do".
"During Maher's appearance on Larry King Live on August 11, 2005, he said, "I'm not convinced that god exists. But I do allow the possibility. I'm not an atheist. I'm open."" - wiki bill maher
"In an interview with Times Online Maher noted, "I'm not an atheist, though, because the belief that there is no God only mirrors the certitude of religion. No, I'm saying that doubt is the only appropriate response for human beings.""- wiki bill maher
