atheist, agnostic, rationalist of humanist?

Question

Asking people who have serious doubts about all religions
what do you classify yourself as.
why
why not one of the others.
for exapmle, if you are a strong agnostic, why are you not an atheist?

Please excuse the spelling mistakes

Answer 1

Atheists DO NOT believe that gods DO exist. That defines 'atheist'.

Religionists go around telling outlandish stories about invisible, magical, all-powerful entities and how these entities orchestrate and cause supernatural events. We do not believe those stories. It is that simple... really. Religionists say that makes us 'atheists'. I say that just makes us 'sane'.

Agnostics (Greek: gnosis - knowledge) claim that they do not possess sufficient knowledge to 'know' whether gods exist, or do not exist. As a result of this lack of knowledge. agnostics DO NOT believe that gods DO exist, and they DO NOT believe that gods DO NOT exist. Please note that the former statement is the same as the statement which defines atheist.

As you should be able to discern from the above, ALL agnostics ARE atheists... but not all atheists are agnostics. Also... there are SOME atheists who BELIEVE that gods DO NOT exist. That falls under the definition of atheist... but it does not DEFINE atheist.

The word 'atheist' was not made up by atheists. Is there a word for people who do not believe in astrology?... the Easter bunny?... magical pink unicorns? No... there is only one reason that the word exists... another label was required ... along with heretic, apostate, etc... so they could briefly jot down the reason why they were torturing somebody, or burning them at the stake, or chucking them into a vat of boiling oil. Also, it was useful in law... making documents was expensive, so they could say things like: "Heretics, apostates and atheists shall be disembowled, and their vile remains shall be defiled by being pissed upon by the Bishops, and then burned upon a pile of horse dung." See? Economical use of language.

The world could get along quite nicely without the words atheist, agnostic, unbeliever, rationalist, humanist. All of those could be clumped together quite nicely if the religionists would simply refer to us as '... the sane people'.
.

Answer 2

I am a nonbeliever of religion and a disbeliever in Gods. So that is called atheist.
I also understand what the points of agnosticism are and honestly deplore that most people think it just means being indecisive about gods existing.
An agnostic is actually taking a position on the knowlege that is possible and considers the question of God existing as not worthy of consideration. They are very definitely not believers, at least not if they actually understand the agnostic position.

I have no idea where the idea that agnostics might believe or not believe comes from. Agnostics are not believers. They are by definition atheist.

If you think at all you must be aware that belief or not belief are exclusive of the middle. You either believe or you do not. There is no way to only believe something a little bit and to not believe it a little bit.

You might be undecided about belief in the sense that you have suspended judgement but that is by default a position of not believing.
It is also not what agnosticism is about.

Answer 3

Rationalist. Not athesist as in being rational there is no reason why there cannot be a greater being or religion as a way of life. Not humanist as in being rationalist I know there is always going to be war dictated by the reality of history and unless it is me who is dieing or people I know, could not care less, (sad but a true rational view.) Agnostic not sure what that means? But would have a guess not agnostic as being rational I know people will always have different beleifs so I cannot really express a view of anti religion as that would make me ignorant. If I am ignorant I cannot be rational. Pheewww that was hard work :)

Answer 4

This may not be the correct way to define them, but this is how I look at it.

Apathetic Agnostic Humanist.....with severe Atheist leanings.

Really, i don't know if a deity exists, and I don't rightly care. (That's the apathetic and agnostic part down.)

I choose to believe in humans and human nature, and all that entails. To me, this is what a humanist is.

Human nature, there are good people, evil people (by chance, by circumstances, and by intent), and there are people who only want to help themselves and disregard anything about good or evil.

Good person will help a fallen old lady. An Evil person would be the cause of her falling. And a "look out for myself" person would walk by when they see the fallen old lady trying to get up.

Answer 5

I call myself an Agnostic/atheist

i would define an atheist as someone who absolutely does not believe in any god

an agnostic is someone who accepts the possibility of a god, but does not follow any religion

I fall between the two.
I accept the *very small* possibility that there may be some sort of greater being or energy behind the universe........ but my belief in this is so small, that most other agnostics would regard me as an atheist
I do not really fit in the absolute atheist camp either. because I allow for the slight possibility of a god, the atheist would regard me as an agnostic
therefore: agnostic/atheist

{and - if you're interested, ex-mormon and ex-Church of England too}

Answer 6

I've gone back and forth on this before finally settling on atheist in the last couple years. I don't completely dismiss the possibility of a higher power, but I find it highly unlikely. In fact, I think the higher power is much more likely to be a more advanced civilization from another planet than some all-powerful deity.

Generally speaking, I believe the Gods were created as a way to explain things we didn't understand (the ancient Greeks are a good example here) and religion is a means for people to deal with the fear of death and the fact that most individuals mean virtually nothing in the larger scheme of things.

Answer 7

I define myself as an atheist because i recently completely lost all faith in a deity and believe that one does not exist.

An agnostic does not believe firmly that god most definately does not exist whereas an atheist does beileve this.

As for humanists , I would like to believe that we are all humanists regardless of religious beliefs.

Answer 8

They missed out the first page of the bible that read 'This is a work of fiction'!
I dont classify myself as anything but a non believer. What i do believe is that religion is the cause of all wars and therefor the world would be a safer place if we were without them all. Just my opinion.

Answer 9

I am agnostic, I am atheist when it comes to the bible God, but I am open to the possibility that a supernatural entity might exist, something so great that no religion has any grasp about it.

Answer 10

an atheist, to me religion is a purely human phenomona, an idea that never would have occurred to be had it not be suggested to me at a young age. Atheists deny the existance of any greater being that is responsible for our creation/ we should worship etc. I accept there may be other beings in the universe mor powerful than us, for example, but not that they are our creators, protectors, judgers or that we should class them as better than ourselves.