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Author Topic:   Neither a theist nor an atheist
PurpleYouko
Member
Posts: 714
From: Columbia Missouri
Joined: 11-11-2004


Message 65 of 118 (732818)
07-11-2014 9:54 AM
Reply to: Message 62 by Taq
07-10-2014 2:52 PM


Re: I'm confused...
How can you be just a little bit atheistic? Either you believe in a deity or set of deities, or you don't. It is just like being pregnant. You are either pregnant, or you aren't. There isn't some middle path where you are a little bit pregnant.
Surely there are degrees of certainty in a person's beliefs.
I would say that Faith is 100% certain of her positions but I don't think many of us share that level of conviction.
I would place myself at about 95% along a scale towards Atheism since I have yet to see any evidence saying otherwise yet I am unable to hold the absolute conviction that God does not exist.
Does that make me an Atheist?.
In the chart it would place me as a (mostly) gnostic atheist but not all the way into the corner.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 62 by Taq, posted 07-10-2014 2:52 PM Taq has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 67 by Taq, posted 07-11-2014 2:36 PM PurpleYouko has replied

  
PurpleYouko
Member
Posts: 714
From: Columbia Missouri
Joined: 11-11-2004


Message 68 of 118 (732844)
07-11-2014 4:44 PM
Reply to: Message 67 by Taq
07-11-2014 2:36 PM


Re: I'm confused...
Surely there are degrees of certainty in a person's beliefs.
You can still have a firm belief in the face of 100% uncertainty. I think they call it faith.
That makes no sense to me. If you have a firm (let's say absolute) belief in something then you are, by definition, 100% certain that you are correct. Take Faith's position about the bible as an example. right or wrong, there is absolutely no doubt in her certainty that the bible is 100% correct
Atheism does not require a belief in the absence of God. All atheism requires is a lack of a positive belief in God which would make you 100% atheist.
All depends on definitions doesn't it?
personally I agree with you that atheism is just a lack of belief. nothing more and nothing less but my experience has been that most people see atheists as having a positive belief in the absence of God. I've often argued that point in the past.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 67 by Taq, posted 07-11-2014 2:36 PM Taq has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 69 by Faith, posted 07-11-2014 6:13 PM PurpleYouko has not replied
 Message 70 by Taq, posted 07-11-2014 6:16 PM PurpleYouko has not replied

  
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