Ask an Atheist!!!

#401

To answer your question in complete honesty; yes, they could very well exist.
The likeliness of that is, of course, slim to none. But for all we know, it could be possible.

And, quite frankly, I think that the possibility of something/someone sharing aspects similar to the G-d of many of our religions is greater than a heavy weapons guy from TF2 existing hundreds of light-years away.
All I’m saying by my agnosticism is that we just don’t know, and because of that, I am leaving everything open as a possibility. I just don’t concern myself with it.

Maybe I should create an “Ask an Agnostic” thread? =/

#402

Agnosticism is about “knowledge” or lack thereof, of spiritual things. If you look up the etymology and history of the word “know”, you get back to the prefix “gno-”, as in “gnosis”, as in “gnosticism”. The lack of “know”, therefore, would add an “a-” prefix to it…creating “agnosticism”

Agnosticism != Atheism

But they’re not mutually exclusive.

I have no knowledge about gods or goddesses. I have no knowledge about a giant invisible Volvo driving around the universe or whether the heavy weapons guy from TF2 actually exists…

As such, I don’t believe they exist.

I’m an agnostic atheist.

#403

The generally accepted definition of an Agnostic isn’t purely somebody who does not have the knowledge of something, but rather, it stems from that to somebody who refuses to make any assumptions based on that knowledge. Henceforth, your denial of such things as Heavy Weapons guys in outer space makes you an Atheist. :smiley:

#404

The difference is that nobody claims that fairies describe real events, their purpose always was just to entertain. In case of the Bible, it is claimed to describe real events, that makes it slightly more convincing. For me however it is as likely as UFO being controlled by visitors from outer space.

#405

…which, in my opinion, is likely. As in, I believe wholeheartedly that we aren’t the only life in existence.

#406

My typical outlandish comparison, which would be perfectly valid in terms of religion, can be explained with hemogoblins. No, that’s not a typo. I’ll explain.

Hemogoblins are tiny undetectable goblins that live in the bodies of all living things. There is a faction of hemogoblin that lives around your heart. The evil hemogoblins live in your heart and the good hemogoblins live outside your heart. Each time your heart beats, it represents the battle between good and evil. Consume too much cholesterol or other bad things and you help the evil hemogoblins. If the forces of evil overcome the forces of good, you go into cardiac arrest. The moral of this is to eat good and help the good hemogoblins repel (but never kill) the evil hemogoblins.

My proof that they exist? People go into cardiac arrest all the time due to poor eating habits. Therefore, they must exist. Scientists and other hemogoblin deniers refuse to even entertain this alternative theory and the secular-progressive schools will not teach this alternative theory, reflecting an anti-hemogoblin agenda and being against good eating habits because they hate the good hemogoblins.

Now, standing back from this story, it’s obviously ludicrous and the claims made against schools, scientists, and people that don’t ascribe to this is obviously insane. Yet, when you turn hemogoblins into religious figures, it becomes sane, somehow.

I am agnostic about the hemogoblins because I don’t know if they exist. I know the scientific reasons behind cardiac arrests, cholesterol, blood and such, but there’s no evidence that these undetectable goblins don’t exist and that their effects don’t result in exactly what we’re seeing.

I also don’t believe they exist, however, because there’s no evidence that they DO exist. That makes me an atheist.

#407

What makes you an atheist is that you don’t believe that they exist.

What makes me an agnostic is that I choose to not make up my mind about their existence, aka not letting it bother me and not making a decision of what I believe.

#408

Do you believe that hemogoblins exist, russilker?

#409

I don’t believe that they exist just as much as I believe they exist.

AKA I don’t bother myself about it, I choose not to make up my mind. So neither believe nor disbelieve, and that makes me an agnostic.

#410

It’s impossible to neither believe nor disbelieve just like it’s impossible for a light bulb to neither be on or off or being a “little bit pregnant”. You either are or you aren’t. You either believe or you don’t.

Agnosticism relates to knowledge. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about belief. The answer to the following two questions are either “yes” or “no”:

Do you believe that hemogoblins exist?
Do you believe that cats exist?

#411

I’d have to disagree with you. You don’t have to choose to believe or not believe, as clearly, I choose not to make up my mind.

Do I believe that hemogoblins exist? I choose not to make up my mind about this.
Do I believe that cats exist? This isn’t a matter of “belief”. There is nothing about cats that leads me to want to believe otherwise, as our definition of cats only encompasses that which we are already sure of.

#412

Do I believe that hemogoblins exist? No.
Do I believe that cats exist? Yes.

That’s how you answer. I defined hemogoblins as well as cats are defined. One has evidence for it (therefore I believe in it) and the other doesn’t (therefore I don’t believe in it).

#413

You’re claiming that you either believe in something or you don’t.

Maybe for you its true, but not for me. I can just choose not to make up my mind about something and not let it affect me. Thats not believing or disbelieving something.

#414

I think you’re confusing “belief” with “faith”. Faith is belief in something you have no evidence for. Belief is not faith. Faith, however, is belief.

Belief is the acceptance of something as true. If you accept that hemogoblins are actually really real, then you believe they do (like I believe that the cat sitting at my feet currently exists). If you don’t accept fully that hemogoblins exist and have some doubts as to their existence (and you don’t make up your mind or “let it affect” you), then you don’t believe. You are an atheist to hemogoblins.

#415

Of course it is possible. Our brain works in a similar way to Artificial Neural Networks. One of the tasks of ANN is classification - for example, you can train it to recognize squares and triangles. After ANN is trained, when you give it a triangle as an input, then it doesn’t say - “Hey, I believe that it is a triangle!”. Instead, it gives you a likeliness that this is a triangle (e.g. 95%) and likeliness than it’s something else (e.g. 1% that it is a square). Some people can apply the same mechanism in their reasoning - e.g. I can evaluate chances that God exist, but neither believe nor disbelieve in it (believe == take something for granted, right?). I would say it’s a pure scientific approach.

#416

Believe does not mean “take something for granted”. Believe simply means the acceptance of something as true. Square has four sides of equal size and right angles. If only one of those are not true, then it’s not a square. Same with a triangle. It has three sides. If it has even one more side, it is no longer a triangle. It is not “95% triangle”. It’s either 100% triangle or it’s 0% triangle.

#417

Then, quite simply, your definition of “belief” differs from mine. And it is definitely open to interpretation.

There really is no point beating a dead horse any further, because you got your point across, and I explained mine as clearly as I think is necessary.

#418

wtf is a hemogoblin?

#419

It’s a small creature which manufactures red blood cells. True.

#420

mind = blown

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