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RE: Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
February 25, 2012 at 5:31 am
(This post was last modified: February 25, 2012 at 5:34 am by Whateverist.)
I find no inconsistency in Dawkins admitting he can't be sure God does not exist. I'm in the same boat.
I am 100% certain that I have no objective evidence that god either does or does not exist. That makes me entirely agnostic. I do not know if anyone else has this knowledge nor do I know whether such knowledge is possible. Maybe, but I don't have it.
I am also 100% certain that I am operating on no beliefs in gods. That makes me entirely atheistic. I don't deny the existence of gods I just don't find any coherent reason why I should believe they're out there. Pascal's wager describes a variety of belief which is different from those I have. If I don't think, feel or intuit that something is true then I can't believe it. Though perhaps I could pretend to believe something, I wouldn't be able to fool myself.
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RE: Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
February 25, 2012 at 5:46 am
(February 25, 2012 at 5:31 am)whateverist Wrote: I am 100% certain that I have no objective evidence that god either does or does not exist. That makes me entirely agnostic. I do not know if anyone else has this knowledge nor do I know whether such knowledge is possible. Maybe, but I don't have it.
I too hold the same belief. In fact, strip atheism to its bare-bone, it is just a stance against the blind belief in god with no logical explanations. Atheists are willing to convert if the religionists can provide, with 100% certainty, demonstrable evidence of God, or more specifically, their version of God. As someone rightly said, everyone is an atheists. A Muslim is an atheists in the eyes of a Christian and verse-versa. We are more of a polytheist than an atheist, I guess.
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RE: Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
February 25, 2012 at 5:59 am
Quote:Can people be sure and still be wrong? If so, then it is not a valid measure of knowledge.
Personal certitudes is not necessarily the same as certainty. The point is moot; science does not deal in certainties,nor do I.
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RE: Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
February 25, 2012 at 6:41 am
This is no big deal, he basically says it in the start of the God delusion, He gives himself a 1 or a 2 out of a scale of ten. He has always portrayed the point that he can't be sure that God exists but he doesn't believe because of probability.
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RE: Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
February 25, 2012 at 7:44 am
I'm an agnostic inasmuch as I don't believe there is a god, but I don't know.
(Belief is what you have in the absence of knowledge)
I'm an atheist inasmuch as you don't need a fear of the big boogyman in the sky in order to be a good person. I.e I can live my life without god, regardless of whether it exists or not.
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RE: Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
February 25, 2012 at 9:01 am
(February 25, 2012 at 4:05 am)aleialoura Wrote: Is there anyone who is sure that god doesn't exist? I'd like to see the evidence, personally.
As in the god of the bible? That is a physical and logical impossibility. Dawkins was referring to the same god Einstein spoke about.
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RE: Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
February 25, 2012 at 10:51 am
* Nine opens his copy of the god delusion
He puts himself in the book in the category of:
"Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. "I cannot know for certain but I think that God is very improbable, and live my life on the assumption that he is not there."
He then says:
"I am an agnostic but only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at the bottom of the garden."
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RE: Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
February 25, 2012 at 10:56 am
Name a god and let's see if there's any room for uncertainty..lol.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
February 25, 2012 at 11:06 am
(February 25, 2012 at 10:56 am)Rhythm Wrote: Name a god and let's see if there's any room for uncertainty..lol.
Not a name but how about a deist god that initiated the big bang and then walked away to let the universe play itself out. This wouldn't be a god that has any effect whatsoever in the universe today (or in the future) so that type of god can't be disproven. All personal gods (Thor, Odin, Allah, Yahweh, Xenu, etc.) are pretty trivial to disprove.
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RE: Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
February 25, 2012 at 11:11 am
(This post was last modified: February 25, 2012 at 11:15 am by The Grand Nudger.)
A not god. The deist god is a retreat from our claims of what gods are or where or could do or have done. It's an accomodationist's god, that is not a god at all in any way except by the insistence of those who call it a god to frame it as such. The mere proposal of a functionally non-existent creature should deserve some measure of uncertainty? I think not. In any case, you've made a claim for the deist god (it's impossible to postualte a god without attaching a claim btw, try it). Show us the skyhook in the big bang or else we're just engaging in flights of fanciful imagination. I can propose outlandish shit all day, such as airplanes flying by way of the massive weight of DHA in a factory somewhere in Winchester Kentucky, an effect that has gone undetected and merely mis-attributed to the current position on how planes fly. Are you uncertain yet?
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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