"an agnostic is an atheist without balls"
agree or disagree?
I prefer to say an Agnostic is an Atheist without conviction.
ah so an atheist does actually have beliefs, huh?
fwiw "agnostic" might also be an admission of an ignorance that has no remedy? Iow you do not know, for a fact, that there is no "God," right? If you say that you do, that would make you a "gnostic," but of course God might be real nonetheless...so, a diff definition of "agnostic/gnostic" maybe, but wadr the current, more accepted usage is kinda ridic on it's face; an atheist believes there is no God, but equally (v a "believer" ) has no proof
@bbyrd009 You said absolutly nothing. The reason I said an agnostic is and atheist without conviction is EASILY explained. There is NO reason to believe or even suspect there is a superatural power. As such there is NO reason to say "you don't know".
You don't know there are not green horses underneath the haze on Jupiter. However there is no reason to suspect there is. Do you want to hold out that there is a possibility of green horses on Jupiter?
REASON.... try it.
@Alienbeing ah, got it really bad, do ya? My condolences, ok, but you have not addressed your likely gratuitous definition of “agnostic,” which as I said makes no sense, practically speaking; absolutely no one, believer, atheist, or in between, “knows” or “doesn’t know” if there is a God or not, regardless of the noises coming out of their mouth, wouldn’t you agree
and the comp to green horses on Jupiter is a wadr a pretty miserable fail, unless you know of any horses that do not need oxygen?
“There is NO reason to believe or even suspect there is a superatural power”
said the guy who cannot find 95% of creation, even with the help of every scientist on the planet?
“Supernatural” what does that even mean? What if Yah is totally “natural?”
So, a point being that you must first define God before you can reject Him, right?
Fwiw I reject that god too ok
@bbyrd009 First, if you don't know what "supernatural" means you are out of your league to even discuss the subject at hand. Try a dictionary, do you have one?
When you have a point lt me know, or if you ever find a reason to suspect a supernatural being (meaning such as a God for your convenience) let me know.
Last, what the hell are your third and forth lines supposed to mean?
@bbyrd009 Learn English. My statement regarding agnostic verses atheist was an opinion, not a definition. When you come up with a reason to even suspect a God, let us know.
Last, if you choose to reply (I really don't care one way or another) please proof read your attempt at grammar before hitting the "reply" button. Your replies are hard to read.
@Alienbeing sun rose straight out your anus this morning too, huh? I was hoping maybe I just caught you in a bad moment...bro, i could tolerate that if you were like 20 or 25, and contributing to the convo, but wadr you’re like 80 and you’re not?
And fwiw we can only find like 5% or so of all of the universe that our maths tell us must exist; pls try to keep up k
If my replies are hard to read, imagine how I feel lol, and fuck off maybe?
Oh, and if you come up with any proof that there is no creator, by all means holla ok
have a nice day
@bbyrd009 Your replies are lame and incoherent. Did you ever pass an English class, at any level of education?
@Alienbeing aw, i feel for you, ok Ab? Best of luck to you sir
@bbyrd009 You feel for me? That is another idiotic reply. I am sure I am much better off than you are, and I KNOW I can make sense, unlike you.
@Alienbeing ha ok buddy, have a nice evening ok, no hard feelings i hope
@bbyrd009 The only feeling I have for you is pity.
@Alienbeing yeh, goes with that humongous complex you got, i guess
best of luck ok
@bbyrd009 Your replies are pathetic. You have yet to say a thing.
@Alienbeing i know, right?
I think most atheists are actually agnostic. Presented with convincing evidence, they'd consider changing their minds. Granted the odds of such evidence ever being found is so remote as to be considered (nearly) impossible.
I refer to myself as an atheist. Although that is mostly because if you say you are agnostic within the hearing of a religious person, they will think there is some hope of convincing/converting you. I just don't want the hassle. Better to say I'm atheist and let them think I'm beyond hope.
you are describing me as well. well said and thank you
I’m not in love with the contrast of atheist to either gnostic or agnostic, as they orig addressed two completely diff concepts, but then I am not the arbiter of definitions, either. What I would say is that now that the definition of “agnostic” has been dumbed-down to “doesn’t know if there is a God or not” (since absolutely no one knows, nor can know, right), an essential concept has been lost, that is only poorly replaced (imo, mostly bc it is a put-down) by the term “dunning-Kruger” or something similar
And I only persist here as the concept is so central to self-knowing (and the Bible), ...tree of KNOWLEDGE of good and evil etc
love the advice though, think I’ll use it myself!
well, you say that, but may I suggest that the self is the easiest to fool, and that you have just chosen a syntax that makes you feel the best? You believe there is no God, right? And (you) might easily “worship” say money, or penis, whatever, regardless of any declarations about not having “religious” beliefs?
Love the meme btw
@bbyrd009 , copying from you "You believe there is no God, right? And (you) might easily “worship” say money, or penis, whatever, regardless of any declarations about not having “religious” beliefs?"
Ok first you mentioned about "penis" as "dick" or you mean "pennies" as coin?.
My apologies for forgetting about the god of money. (Created by human to control) Without humans there is no god or religion that exists.
Well if you are talking about money maybe I forgot about the god of money and the religion of capitalism. There is no human who resists touching him, seducing him, to hold him in his hands and acclaim him. The god of money is very powerful that can build, destroy, protect humans, animals and the whole planet Earth. I know this god of money was created by humans but Perhaps it could be said that it does exist because the world sees it, touches it, provides any need for a hungry human. The money god is with the human if he earns it in a job, robs in a bank or swindles people.
At least this god of money can defeat the invisible gods created by different cultures. If they exist, let me sit in the company of the god of money so that waiting for those invisible gods will not be boring.
@Cecilia2018 "Ok first you mentioned about "penis" as "dick" or you mean "pennies" as coin?"
dick
"Without humans there is no god or religion that exists."
hmm, i can't conclusively disagree, but how do you know?
"There is no human who resists touching him, seducing him, to hold him in his hands and acclaim him."
again, how do you know? None, zero? Are you sure?
"I know this god of money was created by humans but Perhaps it could be said that it does exist because the world sees it, touches it, provides any need for a hungry human. The money god is with the human if he earns it in a job, robs in a bank or swindles people."
yup, guess so
"At least this god of money can defeat the invisible gods created by different cultures."
well, or so you believe anyway, yes; i have a um diff perspective now, but it was quite hard-won, and i don't blame you your pov
"If they exist, let me sit in the company of the god of money so that waiting for those invisible gods will not be boring."
ah; well, existence used to infer that "objective evidence" was available? Now, i'm not so sure
@bbyrd009 , have a great time in your journey.
@Cecilia2018 and you as well
Yeah I'm not a fan of this kind of dialogue here or anywhere. This site is already unfriendly enough, why grill our own kind as to whether an agnostic has balls? All the pissing contests between agnostic.com members, beating each other over the head to dominate and prove intellectual superiority... who's more a bad ass atheist or whatever. I agree with you Cecilia, I don't care either. I was one of the first members of this group - it went downhill and never lived up to what I wanted it to be, just a friendly place where atheists and agnostics could keep each other company and NOT argue like this, especially with each other.
Agnosticism is irrelevant. Everyone is agnostic, including theists. They, like everyone else, DO NOT KNOW definitively if a god exists, this is why Agnosticism is irrelevant.
Theist: theist = belief in god
Agnostic: a = without; gnostic = knowledge
Atheist: a = without; theist = belief in god
In order to know, you must have knowledge, in order to have knowledge, you must have evidence. Believers simply believe without evidence producing knowledge. An atheist accepts knowledge that evidence produces. Theists have not produced any evidence for gods.
This is why atheists demand proof in order to obtain knowledge and theists demand belief in order to sustain their faith.
A god is not defined by reality or existence, believers make the assertion that it is, the god makes no assertion whether it exists or not, it is therefore the believer who must then prove the assertions they make. Only a person who "wants" to believe would waste their time on unproven fantasies and nonsense.
We have had myths for thousands of years that are no more real or relevant than they were when the first idiot believed the fool that invented them.
So, hopefully you get that there are other definitions for those up top, but I post to point out that whole populations were sacrificing their children to Molech, so whether he was “real” or not might be beside the point? As you kinda get into there in the middle I guess, nice imo
Ps, some good observations in there btw, but i would suggest that most mythologies were developed to forward truths to posterity, and we are maybe taking “gods” a bit more literally than they would have; as you say, Yah does not “exist” and is not trying to, as an empty room for a holy-of-holies likely even indicates
Atheism is lack of belief in God or gods, agnosticism is lack of knowledge of the existence of God or gods. So if you want to be intellectually honest you have to be agnostic to some degree, I for one call myself an agnostic atheist. I don't and/or can't know if a god exists, even if I believe its unlikely. I like to go a step further and say I'm an atheist to any and all man made God claims.
I disagree. As an agnostic I embrace, "I don't know." Atheists claim to know there is no ..... Religions claim to know there is.... For me, the vastness of our world is really beyond our comprehension. Science tells us something and is always changing. It can never be complete. But then we have life, our bodies, the way nature works. How did all that come to be? Those who claim to know, exhibit a dangerous arrogance which smacks of disrespect for the things we should honor and care for. Just look at climate change, the state of our precious oceans.
Atheists always tout "science." Then they confuse science with technology, some of which is bad, destructive and dangerous. In the name of science, people are over medicated yet they do not respect food, nor the soil that grows our food (Monsanto, GMO's, dangerous pesticides, tortured, sick live stock) all in the mis-name of science. Right now we have new virus that came out of a laboratory. So much mis-use of science.
And then, out of arrogance and unfounded beliefs we kill each other and wild life. Where is respect for life?
There is much to be said for humility, awe in the presence of each other and the world...and gratitude, appreciation for these gifts.
This is why I am an agnostic.
Disagree. Balls in the sense that you use it are not required. An ounce of common sense and a dose of the ability to think is all that is required.
No because they might also be a theist without balls
@David1955 Is he a Turd ball?
Oh no , not that boring old thing again !
@David1955 Yes I like a bit of good debate, if you do too try Skado, he is wonderful for a good debate, You can find him in the religious naturalism group.
Having said that, I do not really do the atheist agnostic debate, but like to call myself a broard spectrum sceptic, and while we are talking about boring, he is my usual answer why.
ABOUT MUFFINS. I see that the issue of Atheist/Agnostic has been rearing its head again, as it does every few days, so since some people find this a bit tiresome, I thought that a post on muffins would be more interesting.
Suppose for a minute, and for the sake of argument only, that there is a god, and an afterlife, including heaven and a hell; and that the god chooses whether people go to heaven, or if some go to hell, in fact the whole theist deal. Not only that, but the criterion on which the god makes the choice is based on the type of muffins they eat. ( Note: “eat” not prefer, this is not about free will or anything like that.) People who eat lemon muffins go to heaven and people who eat chocolate muffins go to hell, with limbo for those who don't eat muffins at all, naturally.
Would that make a difference to your life ? Would you give up your chocolate muffins for an eternity of joy, and all the lemon buns after death you could ever eat ? Perhaps you would. But there is one vital thing that I forgot to mention about this god, which is that; this particular god, does not tell you about his thoughts on muffins, or how they affect your after life, in fact it keeps the whole thing a big secret just to itself, so that you have no way of knowing which muffins you have to eat.
Then in that case, of course, you could not make the appropriate changes to your life, or save your soul anyway. In fact muffins, the gods preferences and even that god, would not impact on your life at all.
The point is this. That a gods, souls, the afterlife etc. have no effect on anything, unless that god, or someone who knows, tells you about it, and you therefore have some knowledge of god's cake prejudices. Making this the big difference between religion, which pretends to offer knowledge of god the afterlife etc., and none belief which does not. Which is why the difference between atheists, humanists, agnostics and even deists, is so small and unimportant by comparison, because none claim any knowledge of gods preferences, and it is the pretence of fake knowledge, and of god given authority, which makes the big difference. Compared with that the differences between atheist and agnostic, even deist, are trivial to the point of vanishing.
Disagree. Agnostics don't claim to know either way. Atheists claim there is(are) no god(s).
This atheist asserts of both the God of the Torah and the God of the Bible that neither can exist, and I further asserts that nobody has produced any falsifiable evidence of the existence of any other gods, goddesses, godlesses or trans-gender gods/goddesses.
@David1955 You put it so very well: tiresome.
Disagree This coming from a man who doesn't have the courage to post his own picture. It is just a slightly different point of view.
How could a lack of a picture possibly affect one's answer?
@Alienbeing don't tell me about courage when you have none. This is not complicated.
@Sticks48 Stop taking drugs. First you don't know me at all and therfore could not know if I had courage or not. Second, and more important, the subject matter is completly unrealted to courage.
@Alienbeing Number one...l was talking about HIS courage, not yours. Number two...He mentioned Agnostics not having any "balls". Number three...l will do whichever drugs l wish to do. Number four...Why don't you go back to your own planet, Mr Alien, and fuck yourself. Got that buckaroo?
@Sticks48 You were talking about "his" courage, not mine. That is odd since your answer was solely directed to me. You can continue to take drugs, however be mindful that they obviously affect your reasoning ability.
Last, buzz off you are a needless surface thinker.
@Alienbeing So even when l explain l was talking to you about him you don't get it. Then l notice you don't use your own picture either, but being a lawyer and from NC, l can see why. You would be better off if you were an alien.Talk about a waste of skin. GEEZ!
@Sticks48 Your explanation was incomprehensible. You addressed the remark to me, no one else, then you try to say you were referring to someone else.
What is your preoccupation with pictures? How does a picture give additional credibility to a statement?
Your second sentence seems to indicate jealousy as respects post graduate degrees, and last, I spent my legal career in New York City, only recently retiring to N.C. Does my choice of retirement venue affect anything in your weird opinion?
@Alienbeing Evidently comprehension is not one of your strong suits. Yep, you are a lawyer. Lawyers have done as much as anyone, maybe more than most, to fuck up this country.No wonder you hide your face. Aren't you special being one of over 50,000 lawyers in NYC. There are fewer hot dog vendors there, and l am sure they are more respected than lawyers. l could do this all day but l have a gig this afternoon. Enjoy your Saturday. ☺
@Sticks48 I never claimed to be special so did you infer I did? PLEASE point out that areas of exchange where I exhibited any degree of not comprehending the subject.
Please illustrate exactly what lawyers did to fuck up the country?
Hide my face? Ha, how about making it correspond to my chosen screen name? Do you lust to see my face? Why comment about it t all?
Last, you could do what all afternoon? Maybe you mean you can make absurd comments all afternoon.
@Alienbeing Boring! You are definitely a lawyer. You did not comprehend l was referring to the gentleman who wrote the post. Being an arrogant asshole, most lawyers l have known are, you assume l was speaking of you. Typical lawyer attitude. As l said, boring. We can toss insults at each other forever, but after awhile it becomes pointless. I don't like you and you don't like me, so let's just leave it at that.
@Sticks48 OF COURSE I did not think you were speaking of the original poster. What your little lind can't comprehend is why; it is because you addressed your reply to me. If you knew how to write, you'd make sense. Take a few courses., you need them.
I am sure you get bored easily, you probably got bored in the 7th grade and dropped out or school at that point. I'm not insulting you, I am stating the obvious, if I wanted to insult you, you'd know it.
@Sticks48 I see you refer to yourself a "very liberal". That explains everything. Being very liberal you can, and do express your emotions (very clearly illustrated in your replies) without ever referring to fact (also very clearly illustrated in your replies).
This also shows there is no need to insult you because you will fall all over emotions and never use fact.
Grow up.
@Alienbeing If you read the thread my answer was to you about him because you ask me the question about no picture, but since you are so self absorbed you assumed it was directed at you. How the hell did you get through law school when you could not figure out my answer and what I was referring to. I had not looked at your photo because I was on my phone and they are so tiny I didn't notice what it was. I got bored with you because you aren't interesting. I have met very few lawyers who were. For a long time I thought if a person was interesting they weren't allowed into law school , but I have met a couple I really like. I did try college twice, but that was really boring. It was either go live life or read about it. I chose the former. So you are just another right wing moron. No surprise there. You can't insult me because since there are fewer life forms lower than a lawyer it really wouldn't carry much weight.
@Sticks48 Your replies are so strange and disjointed, they simply cannot be answered iin a usual manner.
I got through law school by studying. Something you apparently could not do. I am sure you stopped college twice because you could not apply yourself.
I'm not right wing, nor Republican, I am realistic, unlike people who describe themselves as "very" liberal.
As I mentioned in my prviousl reply haven't tried to insult you, I just commented on what you said.
How dare you smirch and aggrieve any atesticular attendant agnostic atheists?
Just because someone doesn't know whether or not there are pixies at the bottom of the garden is no reason to get all airy fairy facetious folderol.
Or is it?
There's epistemological and ontological precedence aplenty.
Pretty much.
There might not be any pixies at the bottom of my garden, but I sometimes wonder if there are any pixies at my bottom.
@anglophone And if there aren't which one of them said, "Fargone bewdy let's POETS".
Comparisons of labels are dickless!
@David1955 let me explain to you what dickless means because you are either a borderline cretin or just an obnoxious little uneducated troll who doesn't even know basic english or operates at a 5 year old level of understanding. Words are not stupid they are just words and if it has a meaning, as your feeble mind tried to describe your idiotic and moronic point, then by definition can't be "stupid." So, as you so painfully and redundantly obviously bray, yes, dickless means you do not have a dick. Either someone removed it, which would make you a eunuch or you were born without one which would make you either a female or a freak of nature. And just because you say your point is not pointless, which in itself is truly the lamest most pathetic defense of your point ever read in an adult forum like this, doesn't make it so. Really kindergarten level reasoning. Learn something by trying to educate yourself before you try to lecture people with cretinous childish reasoning as your last two incredibly stupid sentences reveal.
@David1955 i do not need to defend anything you moron. Previous was not deleted but decided to change it/edit it to try and educate your ignorant ass. You might have gone to the university but it definitely didn't go through you, which proves once again the point that you can bring a thirsty mule to the river but that mule is too dumb or stubborn to drink the water.
I am an atheist to all the gods of religion, because I can prove to my own satisfaction, that they do not exist.
However there are deist gods, and beliefs in possible super-natures, so vague, that their existence or not can not be proved. So that while I am quite certain they probably don't exist, my respect for the principle that nothing should ever be held to be absolutely certain, in which I do have the "brains" (Not balls, since I do not use those for thinking with.) to believe absolutely, it being the only absolute I allow, is such that I am happy with agnostic, and willing to tolerate even deists as friends in alms.
Obviously, on a site such as this there will be many that have a strong belief that there is no god, which technically IS the definition of an athiest. It's also the category I fit in. But a strong feeling or belief is not a fact. Therefore, I call myself agnostic as a simple admission that I cannot prove the lack of a god with facts.
Its crazy to me that people get so worked up about this subject. Call yourself whatever the hell you want, it's really not that serious IMO. I call myself an ancient god king for goodness sake. And I don't even believe in gods....
Anyone whose metric of "having balls" is whether they call themselves an athiest or agnostic probably needs to get out the house more. Surely a life will give them a better benchmark to measure from.
I disagree. An agnostic has as strong ideas as anyone else. If someone thinks like that, it's an opinion just like any other.
Not so. There are may agnostic theists.
" Agnostic Theist," a bit of an oxymoron imo.
Since AGNOSTIC means, by dictionary definition, a person who " has NO actual KNOWLEDGE/ is UNSURE of whether a God/Gods, etc, EXISTS, and,
Theist, also by dictionary definition , means that a person who believes/trusts/understands in the concept that a God/Gods, etc, ACTUALLY do exist.
Ergo and logically, etc, being both an Agnostic and a Theist in the same person is a conflict of ideas, thoughts, etc, would you not agree?
or for that matter gnostic atheists eh? But we are laboring under a difference of definitions i guess
@Tejas Yes, Theism IS belief, whereas, technically speaking, Agnosticism is, in most/some cases, neither a belief of nor a knowledge/understanding of, etc, etc.
Whereas, on the other hand, imo, Atheism, for the most part, is both a knowledge and an understanding that, by the usage of Logical thought and reasoning, etc, etc, NO God/s/Goddesses/Supreme Deities either have or ever have Existed EXCEPT in the minds of Human Beings.
Ergo, to put it plainly and simply imo, an Agnostic MAY simply be a person who 'is merely hedging their bets' so to speak.
I.e. and in other more simpler terms Undecided upon which way to actually jump.
As a woman I can totally, emphatically NOT relate.
But could you relate to metaphorical balls?
as a woman?
disagree, I think there is a creator, but I could be wrong. I dunno. It is a tad insulting perhaps.
i guess a whole lot of work is being done to dumb-down the definition of “agnostic” to “doesn’t know if there is a God or not,” and as “knowing” v not knowing is such a central theme to our walk and consequently the Bible—tree of knowledge, etc—i guess i can see why? Insulting was surely the whole point i bet
So, completely optional, but (you) might consider defining “agnostic” more like...well, the site def, or the opposite of “gnostic,” which might be defined today something like “a sufferer of dunning-Kruger syndrome, a know-it-all”
After all, and regardless of any protests to the contrary, seems to me anyway, no one “knows” whether there is a God or not, right? I mean I can say “Yah is absolutely for real, 100%” until I’m as green as mr dunning’s Jovian horses, below, but what does that matter? Then i would be saying nothing, yes?