RE: Arguments against existence of God.
July 11, 2012 at 8:59 pm
(This post was last modified: July 11, 2012 at 9:00 pm by Mystic.)
(July 11, 2012 at 8:56 pm)Simon Moon Wrote:(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.
But it's the formal definitions. If you mean the rooted word, look at the word for "disbelief" in Arabic. It means "to cover". But it's usage is that refusal or inability to believe in something most of the time and it's the common usage of it. Now Muslims are trying to redefine it as to mean "cover" everywhere being embarrassed by the condemnation of all non-believers.
I understand agnosticism root words comes "without knowledge", but it's common usage is "without belief something is either false or true".