(July 11, 2012 at 8:51 pm)MysticKnight Wrote: Again this is war of semantics. Commonly, people referred to the position as being agnostic. Now there is a war going on about the usage of atheism and agnosticism.
It's used in both ways, whether you acknowledge it or not. You can't just say a word means what I want it to mean only but it's used in a way ( and has been used for a long time) that opposes your desire of how the word is to be used.
Here's the thing, we're here on an atheist website in hopes of having discussions based on logic, critical thinking and evidence.
The use of colloquial meanings of words, which you're applying to agnostic, just muddies up the discussion. If we all agree to use formal definitions, these debates will be so much more productive.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.