RE: Agnostic: a pointless term?
January 30, 2015 at 9:12 pm
(This post was last modified: January 30, 2015 at 9:23 pm by YGninja.)
(January 30, 2015 at 8:55 pm)Parkers Tan Wrote: They're not mutually exclusive, one can fairly day "I don't know if X exists, but I don't believe it does".
No, you could say "i don't know if x exists, therefore i do not actively believe it does", which is an extraneous statement but atleast coherent.
When you say you "don't believe", what you are actually saying is you believe it doesn't (exist). Like if someone says they "don't believe" you are telling the truth what they are actually saying is that they believe you are lying. This is just mis-use of a colloquialism. You are also missing the meaning of the word agnosticism, which is a lack of knowledge precluding the ability to form an opinion. Agnosticism has never pertaining to knowing with certainty, this is why i warded you off defining by etymology. No-one can ever really say they *know* anything, which is why such a definition of agnosticism would be meaningless. Everyone would be agnostic about everything.
