I have an interesting suggestion, what are your thoughts?

Question

Okay, since coming to this forum, I have noticed many things.
One of them being that the word atheist is used almost as a curse word.
Most atheists that I have come across seem to be asking a lot of questions as to the proof of creation etc. to be made by christians.
My veiws are this: If a true atheist, you would not believe in any gods with a certainty in your mind, and you would not care about any proof being offered one way or another, right?
Here is the definition, however of an agnostic:
Agnostics claim either that it is not possible to have absolute or certain knowledge of God or gods; or, alternatively, that while certainty may be possible, they personally have no knowledge. Agnosticism in both cases involves some form of skepticism.

This is from the dictionary. This also seems to fit most atheists on this board.
Having pointed this out, I notice christians are not cruel to agnostics. Would it not be simpler to just classify yourself as agnostic?
Just a thought...

Answer 1

"No atheist of my acquaintance would claim "absolute or certain knowledge" about any god(s). Obviously that's impossible."

That's exactly why atheists don't exist. Unless you are 100% certain that God doesn't exist, you can't make that claim. The only way to be 100% sure that God doesn't exist is to have all knowledge that there is to know.

"But it is possible to claim that you don't believe in the existence of any god, on the basis of the lack of evidence for same. That's a perfectly reasonable claim, and one which is actually made by many atheists, including me."

Lack of evidence is not the same as 100% evidence against something. To be able to make 100% sure that something doesn't exist, you'd have to have all knowledge. For example, if somebody told me that at this exact moment there are 311 sheets of toilet paper in the bathroom of the 2nd floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo, I'd say that there is a lack of evidence. However, I am not 100% sure, so I'd say that I am agnostic toward there being 311 sheets of toilet paper in the bathroom of the 2nd floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo.

On a simpler level, to disprove God, you'd have to know everything about everything and then somehow be able to logically piece together that all-knowing info you have to assert that there is no God. Of course, nobody knows everything. Remember the quote that we probably know 1% of .1% of everything there is to know. We can only know so much-our brains have capacity to the point that our minds can selectively choose to forget some things. For example, at one point in my life, I knew some French phrases. But that was several years ago. Since then, I have taken up Japanese, and now know quite a bit of Japanese. It's not that I necessarily know more now, it's that I know different things.

Anyway, "I'm not an agnostic toward a god, because then I'd have to be agnostic that invisible gnomes are hiding under my back deck. It is an intellectual cop-out."

If you brought the Flying Spaghetti Monster into a conversation, I'd tell you I am an agnostic toward the Flying Spaghetti Monster. How is that a cop-out intellectually? Yes, there would be a lot of things I am agnostic toward. But I cannot definitively say that there is no Flying Spaghetti Monster. There is certainly a 'lack of evidence', but that does not mean it doesn't exist.

The Asker has brought up an excellent point for 'atheists' to consider.

Answer 2

It seems the Christians seldom consider the possibility of agnosticism, and label anyone who is not a Christian, or a member of some other well-defined religion, as atheists. It seems to have become a catch-all term, losing its accuracy in the process.

Many times people classify agnostics as atheists because that's the way they seem to lean. The same is true of people who believe something that does not fit an established religion. They get labeled atheist because people do not believe it is possible to have a personal pathway that does in fact relate to anything divine.

It may be true that an atheist would be better off calling themselves an agnostic, but it might also be true that "true believers" of various stripes would consider this a challenge and work all the harder at trying to prove the existence of the God they believe in.

Answer 3

I am not an agnostic. I am an atheist. I find the christian religions interesting. I find its followers interesting. Without meaning to boast, I quite likely know more about the religion's basics than many professors of same. Again, I just find it interesting. I do not care what you think of me personally because you do not know me personally, nor I you. My sarcasm may offend you but call it like it is, not as a personal comment on a religion you hold in common with untold others. How did our world get here? Where did people come from? I don't know. Atheism does not tell me. Christianity does not tell me either. Islam does not tell me. I find that interesting, don't you? Take it easy, already.

Answer 4

"My veiws are this: If a true atheist, you would not believe in any gods with a certainty in your mind, and you would not care about any proof being offered one way or another, right?"

Wrong, I'm an atheist, but I'm eager to be challenged and for people to try and prove me wrong. I ask for proof of creation because if a religion is going to brainwash cildren and interfiere with matters of state I want to see if they can at least back up their claims with evicence, which they can't, but it's interesting to see their answers and the way their minds work. I question everything, but I am NOT a woosy agnostic.

Answer 5

No. I am not agnostic and I will not call myself that just to make other people feel better. I honestly don't care if the Christians pick on me for being an atheist, they've picked on me all my life even back when I was still a Christian! It's nothing new.

I do believe no gods exist. I do believe that it is fully possible to disprove the existence of certain gods, such as the Christian one, because of the contradictory attributes they endow him with make him impossible. I enjoy posting questions to that effect, trying to make people *think* about it.

Answer 6

I'm not an agnostic toward a god, because then I'd have to be agnostic that invisible gnomes are hiding under my back deck. It is an intellectual cop-out.


There's a reason why most scientific fields take the stance that something is NOT real unless data can show otherwise.

Answer 7

I am neither a Christian nor an atheist, but in trying (and sometimes succeeding) in getting Christianity made into laws in secular cultures, Christians have demanded that their beliefs be held up to the standards other bases for legal precident are held up to.

This, not actually curiousity about any god, is why atheists generally ask questions like this....they also want to understand why non-atheists believe things.

That does not make them agnostic.

Answer 8

The Golden Notebook by means of Doris Lessing is splendidly 'deep' and philosophical. The entire guide is a sequence of notebooks regarding the beyond and inside they all the protagonist (known as Anna) is a wrestle to preserve her sanity round different humans and in spite of herself. It's quite full of clever sociological, mental, and interpersonal ideas. The handiest factor I could alert you of is if you're a boy, it is fairly a womanly/feminist guide. Not that boys cannot revel in that variety of factor! I simply don't forget that after I learn it, I loved constituents as a lady know-how matters approximately being feminine in society. And I've learn of a couple of guys who cannot stand it. Nevertheless I suggestion it nonetheless makes a captivating and quite quite strong learn, apart from the womanly constituents and if you do not brain its gradual velocity for six hundred pages!

Answer 9

Agnostics are just Atheists without the guts to stand up for what they believe in...

Atheists ask about your gods and creation so as to get christians to see for themselves how silly their religion is...not because we want to know...We already know more about Christianity than most Christians in this forum...Except maybe the crazy ones...

Answer 10

Well, I could classify myself as a teapot. That wouldn't change anything.

No atheist of my acquaintance would claim "absolute or certain knowledge" about any god(s). Obviously that's impossible.

But it is possible to claim that you don't believe in the existence of any god, on the basis of the lack of evidence for same. That's a perfectly reasonable claim, and one which is actually made by many atheists, including me.