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Originally posted by schrafinator:
Huh? How is an agnostic either a deist or an atheist? The whole point of agnosticism is that one doesn't know if God exists or not. There is no choice.
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A common misconception. To KNOW something, is to be entirely assured of it. To BELIEVE it, is another thing. Atheists cannot disprove that there is a god, deists cannot prove there is a god. That is the nature of faith. I BELIEVE pink bunnies do not exist, but I do not KNOW for sure. Agnosticism is more accurately described as "believing god cannot be proven or disproven".
There are so many subtleties to consider that it is silly to correct me on what my own beliefs are (I am an Agnostic, and I'm not an Atheist, and I'm not a Deist).
How do you classify someone who says that there is a way to determine if God exists, but we just haven't found it yet, so they are remaining Agnostic? What about the person who doesn't think that God exists but is remaining in the Skeptical tradition by saying that "we don't know", because one cannot prove a negative?
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But there logically isn't a middle of the road.
Sure there is, because it is quite logical to conclude that one doesn't know if God exists or not. (Saying that we
cannot know if God exists or not is a different thing) Again, how is this an illogical conclusion?
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Even if someone says they aren't sure if god exists or not, would be fluxuating between "exists" and "doesn't exist", blanking it out of their mind, or considering it.
I disagree. I think that answering an unanswerable question with, "I don't know" is perfectly logical and valid.
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It's a black and white situation, because there is no "kind of exists".
We aren't talking about what actually "exists", we're talking about what someone believes.
One can believe, in very general terms:
God exists. (Theist)
God doesn't exist.(Atheist)
I don't know if God exists or not.(Agnostic)
[This message has been edited by schrafinator, 03-24-2002]