RE: Can Someone be Simply "An Agnostic?"
June 26, 2014 at 4:44 pm
(This post was last modified: June 26, 2014 at 4:53 pm by MindForgedManacle.)
(June 26, 2014 at 4:30 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: Still not correct.
All disbelief is, is that one does not believe a claim or claims.
It does not mean that one necessarily believes the contrapositive claim.
You are trying to force atheism to be a response to 2 prongs of dilemma simultaneously, when it is clearly not.
I'm sorry, but you are being pedantic. If someone says they disbelieve something, it is nearly always meant as "i believe X is false". You disbelieve in Santa Claus, yes?
Doing that means you think the question cannot be answered (either currently or in principle). For example, I do not have the belief that ETs exist, not because I believe they don't, but because the question of them existing doesn't seem amenable to an answer yet, hence I'm agnostic on the matter.
No I'm not, this has nothing to do with a dilemma at all. I'M an atheist, wjhy would I do that? I just value being clear and inline by what people actually mean by the words they use.
(June 26, 2014 at 4:40 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: Did you miss the "lacks belief" part?
No, did you miss the "disbelief" part? Pretty much only atheists use this lack of belief nonsense to mean atheism.
Quote:I'm truly sick of people telling me what I believe. I don't actively disbelieve there are gods, I've just never been given adequate evidence. This means I... Wait for it...
Lack belief!
No one is telling you what you believe, that's just false. We're talking about what people actually mean with these words.
(June 26, 2014 at 4:41 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: No, clearly they are asking if I believe if at least one god does exist.
No, they're focus in the question is obviously centered around an accusation of rejecting theism.
Quote:Belief is the psychological state in which one accepts a proposition or premise to be true. There is no in between, fence sitting position. Either one accepts the premise that a god exists, or they don't.
It is a binary mental state.
Again, you're missing the point. Yes, it's binary if you say the options are either "Believe it's true on one hand, and not believe it's true on the other". The prob is, these sorts of questions are ternary (at least), not binary: Believe (theist), Abstain (agnostic), Believe opposite (atheist).
Quote:Atheism is simply the response to the claim that a god exists.
I agree, however you don't realize that this creates a contradiction on your part. If atheism is a response to god claims, that implies there were no atheists prior to god claims, even though on your "lacking belief" definition they WOULD exist prior to god claims, as everyone would be an atheist.
Quote:All that is required to be an atheist is to not be convinced by the theist claim that a god exists. It does not require claiming a god does not exist.
You're bringing up the same thing I earlier questioned you on, just in different words. When you say you're 'not convinced' by theistic claims, are you saying you're unable to give an answer or that the theist's claims are false?
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