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Agnostic, I don't get it (1 Viewer)

H

HTColeman

What exactly is agnostic and how is it different from atheist?
 
An agnostic does not believe we are informed enough to know if a Higher Being exists or not. Whereas the athiest outright denies it and the religious outright accepts it, the agnostic see's both sides. I personally am agnostic. It's impossible to know if God exists and therefore pointless to follow a religion when you never know which, if any, is right.
 
V.I. Lenin said:
An agnostic does not believe we are informed enough to know if a Higher Being exists or not. Whereas the athiest outright denies it and the religious outright accepts it, the agnostic see's both sides. I personally am agnostic. It's impossible to know if God exists and therefore pointless to follow a religion when you never know which, if any, is right.
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So how do you judge what is right and wrong? I am not saying whether agnostic is right or wrong, I'm just curious.
 
Why must their be a right and wrong? Why must everything be black and white?


Whoooooa dude, I just totally blew your mind. Groovy. :mrgreen:

But seriously, unless their is hard evidence that it's real, it's not real to me. Jesus preaching God's word is fine, but without God actually showing up I don't believe it.
 
Oh, okay, I see your point. Lets see if I can blow your mind, lol.

When life reaches a crossroad, how do you decide what to do?

That is deep...
 
V.I. Lenin said:
An agnostic does not believe we are informed enough to know if a Higher Being exists or not. Whereas the athiest outright denies it and the religious outright accepts it, the agnostic see's both sides. I personally am agnostic. It's impossible to know if God exists and therefore pointless to follow a religion when you never know which, if any, is right.
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WRONG WRONG WRONG


AGNOSTIC:
One who believes the "Doctrine that one cannot know the existence of anything beyond the phenomena of experience."

"agnosticism." Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service
14 July 2005 <http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article?tocId=9354743>. ​

That is to say that the agnostic claims that things about God cannot be known. But I think the important nuance of what this means must have led many to misunderstand what agnosics are. Agnostics Do Not see both sides. They see neither side. They say that the debate is useless because neither side can ever say anything verifiable. This leads the agnostic to take the position that God may or may not exist. This seems similar to the person who is simply unsure which argument about whether god exists is stronger, but it is not.

This person thinks they could be convinced by one or other of the arguments, the Agnostic does not. The Agnostic makes the specific claim that arguments about God are useless because nothing about God can ever be known.

I think it is really important that we not allow the dumbing down of words. It leads to anemic discussion when people are limited to the dumbest meaning a word can possibly have. It also leads to anemic thought.
 
Interesting definitions. I now know more about agnosticism than I did before. I had always thought of agnostics as contemplating the existence of a god as opposed to the atheist who has no god whatsoever.
 
Isn't "agnostic" the stuff you drink around Christmastime?
 
I thought of myself as an agnostic and i always thought of it as a rejection of religions because they are all run by humans and that is basicly the same thing.
 
Yeah...I believe that if there is a god, it is very arrogant of human kind to believe that we can define him.
 
Kelzie said:
Yeah...I believe that if there is a god, it is very arrogant of human kind to believe that we can define him.
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Him? ;)


I always thought agnostic meant we did not know if there was a god...

and don't forget about the insomniac dyslexic agnostic who stayed awake at night wondering if there was a dog :mrgreen:
 
quietrage said:
I thought of myself as an agnostic and i always thought of it as a rejection of religions because they are all run by humans and that is basicly the same thing.
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It sounds as if you are saying that God, if s/he turns out to exist, would be incomprehensible to human intelligence. This is not an agnostic belief, but is nonetheless worthy of consideration by those interested in the truth.
 
Lilith said:
Him? ;)


I always thought agnostic meant we did not know if there was a god...

and don't forget about the insomniac dyslexic agnostic who stayed awake at night wondering if there was a dog :mrgreen:
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Agnostics do say that they do not know if there is a god, but it is more than that. Agnostics say it cannot be known.
 
Dezaad said:
It sounds as if you are saying that God, if s/he turns out to exist, would be incomprehensible to human intelligence. This is not an agnostic belief, but is nonetheless worthy of consideration by those interested in the truth.
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Then could you tell me what my beliefs sound like
 
Lilith said:
Him? ;)


I always thought agnostic meant we did not know if there was a god...

and don't forget about the insomniac dyslexic agnostic who stayed awake at night wondering if there was a dog :mrgreen:
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Ha ha. I said IF. I am not at all sure that there is one.
 
quietrage said:
Then could you tell me what my beliefs sound like
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Ummm, because I used the colloquialism 'sounds like'? I don't get it...
 
Kelzie said:
Yeah...I believe that if there is a god, it is very arrogant of human kind to believe that we can define him.
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They believe that their God is defining himself THROUGH them, and that they are just interpreting his words... which is nice, because how do you disprove God talking "through" another person?

I wonder if I told them that there's no disproving the fact that their God wants them to give me all their money as a show of faith to him, so therefore they have to... I gotta try that sometime.
 
Zebulon said:
They believe that their God is defining himself THROUGH them, and that they are just interpreting his words... which is nice, because how do you disprove God talking "through" another person?

I wonder if I told them that there's no disproving the fact that their God wants them to give me all their money as a show of faith to him, so therefore they have to... I gotta try that sometime.
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I was just curious, but now you have made an attack on my beliefs, though I made no attack on your own. God calls us to give some of our money to help those who don't have it, if a church uses the money for something else, that is not reflective of God, it is reflective of humanity's corruption.
 
HTColeman said:
I was just curious, but now you have made an attack on my beliefs, though I made no attack on your own. God calls us to give some of our money to help those who don't have it, if a church uses the money for something else, that is not reflective of God, it is reflective of humanity's corruption.
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I wouldn't necessarily call that an attack on YOUR beliefs, as I don't KNOW your beliefs. I don't know YOU, short of what I've seen you post.

As far as the "telling people that they can't disprove God's wish to have them give me money" part, that was meant to describe more the fallacy of using the "you can't disprove it, therefore it must be true" arguement, rather than insulting people who contrbiute monetarily to charitable organizations, as I do so myself.

My apologies if you felt insulted by that post, as it was not the intention of that post to insult. Ridicule smallmindedness in some people, yes, but not insult, and not you personally.
 
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