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I think a perfectly agnostic person when asked "Does God exist?" would say "I don't know and I cannot say one way or another."
This has been stated by me and others and I would like to expand on it a little. When I say that I "don't know" I am saying that I can't tell the difference between a genuine religious experience and something my mind is just making up. Some people, such as yourself, put faith in these experiences. They believe that they can tell the difference. This is perhaps the biggest difference that I see between theists and agnostics.
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Well, if we were all perfectly logical machines then that's how it would be, but other things factor into our thoughts.
I will be the last one to claim that humans are perfectly logical machines. I also think it is a good thing that we are not machines. Theology and philosophy have shaped our history as a species, both of which can be quite illogical and irrational at times.
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The pending existence of God is pretty dang important. I mean if God is the only reason for living and there is an afterlife then the question of his existence is really the most important of life.
I gave up on an afterlife a long time ago, so the "pending existence" really isn't that important. What is important is the one life I am guarateed, the one I am experiencing now. I can't think of a way to express it, but there seems to be a difference in how one approaches life with these two opposing viewpoints (ie belief or non-belief in an afterlife). Maybe if I fart out some evil demons my thought processes will clear up (this is a little inside joke here at EvC, so don't worry if you don't get it).
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Most agnostics would tend to say, "I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty darn sure God doesn't exist," and then equate God to something absurd because it feels better and is more reassuring to think that you are right rather than to think that you don't know.
I see just the opposite hapenning. I see theists who need to believe in a god because it makes them feel better and more reassured about their place in the world. As Schraf says, the sword cuts both ways on this one. I often hear people proclaim that after their religious conversion they felt "a weight lifted off their shoulders" or "an inner peace that I had never felt before". It would seem to me that religion has soothed the savage breast for quite some time within human societies. We even have adages such as "there are no atheists in foxholes" that portray this sentiment. I think we all tend to go with what makes us feel best. For some it is more emotional and for some it is more intellectual. I don't think one is better than the other, but they can have different outcomes.
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Some would say that solid evidence for God must be presented to even entertain the idea of God and since no such evidence exists God is a non issue. IMO, since this conatains a judgement that God (whatever that might be) probably doesn't exist this can be called weak atheism expressed in a scientific worldview vocabulary.
I wouldn't say it is "scientific worldview vocabulary", at least it isn't with me. I have entertained the idea of God, but without evidence that would rule out my own mind playing tricks it is impossible for me to trust my mind. This is a philosophy, not a science.
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