[Dragaera] agnosticism (no flame) (was, long ago: (no spoilers) The 17 [Great Weapons])

[Mark A. Mandel]

----- Original Message ----
From: Frank Mayhar <frank at exit.com>
To: Kenneth Gorelick <pulmon at mac.com>


Atheism is simply the absence of theism.  Since when does the absence of
belief require faith?

Flawed dictionary definitions written by theists notwithstanding.


When I first learned the word, oh, about 50 years ago, as far as I could tell, everyone who used it meant it as "belief that there is no God". I called, and still call, myself an agnostic: "one who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of God". I don't think it's knowable in the same way as most things that we speak of as "knowing".

A good friend of mine who calls himself an atheist defines it differently. He said, approximately, "I don't know whether or not God exists. It's not knowable. But I choose to live as though God does not exist." That falls within my definition of agnosticism, as a subset.

After that conversation I looked for definitions of atheism, and I saw plenty of them, not all in agreement, including those by people who called themselves atheists.

-- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody
   a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel











       
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