If you had to choose between atheist or theist...

Does this mean that all these years part of Irish and Scottish people were clandestine Druids, formally belonging to either Catholic or Protestant churches?

no more than catholics are all former Romans

Just to expand our knowledge on holidays and christianity - and more. c.i.

http://www.furinkan.net/display.php?pageid=102

Kraven

Agnostics are not fence-straddlers.

They are people who acknowledge the obvious. We simply do not KNOW if there is a GOD or if there are no gods -- and we do not see enough evidence of any value to lead to a reasonable guess.

Not guessing -- in the absence of reasonable evidence -- is not fence straddling. It is being truthful.

Theists and atheists ought really to consider it.

I have no problem with agnosticism, it can't be argued against. But in the face of said lack of evidence which would you bet on?

Hmmmm - eeenie, meeenie, minie.........

For years I called myself an atheist. Later in life I realized that I did not know if there were a God, any more than I didn't know if there were people who were made of green cheese living on Mars, or if humanity was merely some huge experiment designed by some more advanced civilization that I didn't know about.

I then decided to stop contemplating my navel, and go about the business of living the best way that I could. What would you call a person to whom the entire concept of a God does not really have to matter?

A doesn'tgiveaferkeist?

dlowan- A little wordy, but sounds good to me!

LOL!

Sounds just like the kind of discussion I ought to be into...

Or not....

Kraven

You wrote:

"I have no problem with agnosticism, it can't be argued against. But in the face of said lack of evidence which would you bet on?"

COMMENT:

Keep in mind that this year, I bet on the Giants to win the Super Bowl. And when they didn't make it to the game, I bet heavily on Oakland.

If absolutely forced to make a bet on whether there is a God or that there are no gods -- I would bet...

...ah...wait, I'm tossing the coin...ahhh...

...heads...I would bet there is a God.

Yep!

If forced to make a bet -- I would bet there is a God -- so I guess the answer to your question would be "Theist!"

Does that help?

Sure! I take it to mean that you do not lean toward either belief at all. Is that a safe assumption?

Kraven

You asked: "I take it to mean that you do not lean toward either belief at all. Is that a safe assumption?"

COMMENT:

Actually, it means more than that.

Perhaps I can explain this best by defining my agnosticism.

I do not KNOW if there is a GOD -- or if there are no gods. -- and I do not see enough evidence of probative value upon which to make a reasonable guess (or estimate) in either direction.

Your use of the word "belief" in your question translates in my mind (correctly or incorrectly) into the word "guess" (or estimate, conjecture, supposition).

I truly think flipping a coin when asked "...if you had to choose..." makes as much sense as any of the other reasons I've heard.

Is this something we can discuss?

I wanted to start a thread here in Able2Know about this issue, but I still haven't figured out how to do it. I'm a clod when it comes to learning new computer techniques -- and even if you would not like to discuss the subject issue, I wish you could give me a brief survey of how to go about initiating new discussions here.

(If you don't want to do it here in this thread, please email me at [email protected])

Thanking you in advance, since you've helped me in the past over at Abuzz. Frank)

Hi Franka, As an atheist I see absolutely no evidence of any god or gods. The idea that praying will some how change what is "natural" in this world makes no sense to me. Good happen to bad people and visa-versa. Prayer doesn't change anything. Natural or man-made catastrophies changes nothing by prayer. Religions have not had a positive impact on humanity, but I see many negatives from religions. The offsets between good and bad are based on individual characteristics, and has nothing to do with their religious' beliefs. That they were associated with any religious sect was an accident of birth in most cases, because they belong to the same relgion as their parent, country, or culture. When we look at current world affairs, GWBush, a professed christian, is ready to do in some innocent Iraqis who have never done him harm, and the extremist Muslims that will kill as many innocents with the blessing of Allah - to go to heaven. Nah, I'll stick with my atheist beliefs. c.i.

Hey CI, good to see you.

I have no problem with what you've written.

I also "do not believe in GOD."

But as an agnostic, I also must acknowledge that I "do not believe there are no gods."

I just do not know which it is -- and there is not enough reliable evidence to make a reasonable guess one way or the other.

I'm sure you realize that all indications are that no thesists truly KNOWS there is a GOD. It appears that they are guessing that there is -- and using the word "believe" to denote that guess -- although many will give a person a lot of noise for suggesting that to be the case.

I'd like to ask you this (although I think we've covered this ground over in Abuzz):

Do you KNOW there are no gods -- or is that just a "belief" of yours -- a guess, as it were?

Belief to be sure, because there's no way we can prove there is or there isn't. I'll never attempt to prove a negative in my life time. It's a losing proposition. c.i.

I think the one thing we can be sure of is that man made concepts of god does not exist. c.i.

Just click on the


button in the forum that you'd like to start a new interaction in.
If you need any help in the subsequent steps just give me a holler.

This will doubtless sound arrogant or ignorant (depending), but these discussions always strike me as I would imagine a conversation would between pots about their potter.