(February 28, 2015 at 8:56 am)Irrational Wrote: How I see it is there is a difference in meaning between "believing" and "knowing".
To know that something is true is to side with the view that this something is true because it has been substantially established in your mind that it is true, whether by personal experience ("I know I am male") or by an accepted consensus within society ("I know the earth is flat") or because science says so ("I know the earth is round") or some other means ("I know Daniel was at the party last night even though I wasn't there").
In a lot of cases, to believe that something is true is to side with the view that it is even though you may not be confident enough to say you know it to be true. For example, "I believe that Jesus did exist at one point in time". You could also say you believe something if you are expressing an opinion about something. For example, "I believe abortion is wrong" or "I believe he's an ugly mofo" or "I believe you need a shower right now".
With that in mind, and relating this to atheism, I believe that gnostic atheists are those who say that they know God doesn't exist because they are sure that he doesn't. Saying that you believe God doesn't exist does not, in my view, make you a gnostic atheist. It just means you're an atheist who has no qualms saying "I believe" with regards to God's non-existence because you consider "belief" to indicate a view that you accept as true for good reasons but are not sure of completely.
If you still feel that what I'm saying does not seem right, consider the following questions:
Do you believe you'll still be alive an hour from now? How about five minutes from now?
Do you know you'll still be alive an hour from now? How about five minutes from now?
Did you have the same answers for both sets of questions above?
It seems that, according to this understanding, it is possible to "know" something which is false (e.g. The earth is flat). This seems grossly inadequate to me. Is there a better way to speak about knowledge and what, exactly, it is? I think the Greeks had several words for different "kinds" of knowledge. Perhaps something similar could help?
