A civil war thread: Atheists vs Agnostics.

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Agnosticism (at least the branch that believes in a superior being)is atheism or theism in denial. Who agree?

I'm Agnostic about aliens. Agnostics might say that god is a bit like aliens, but I strongly disagree.

If you believe in a superior being is that really agnosticism?

An agnostic does not believe in a superior being but does not deny the possibility. An atheist denies the possibility.

Not quite, I just find the "possibility" so absurd that it could just as well be zero. Russel's Teapot is more probable.

EDIT: One could say that I find the non-existance of god a working assumption.

But an agnostic is reasonably cautious. There are many improbabilities stalking the universe. Humanity is an outstanding example.

Athiest - Does not believe in God

Agnostic - Not sure if there is or is not a "god."

IIRC

Perhaps not sure but perfectly happy acting as if there weren't.

Distinguish this from one who believes there is no God.

ruveyn

[shrugs]

I would see the two as being similar to not be different.

Does not believe in God.

Believes there is no God.

Splitting hairs?

Theist - Believes there is a God
Atheist - Believes there is no God
Agnostic - Isn't sure if there is a God or not

Agnostic-Theist - Isn't sure if there is a God or not, but if they had to guess, they would say there is one (or multiple... whatever)
Agnostic-Atheist - Isn't sure if there is a God or not, but if they had to guess, they would say there is no God.

I'm atheist-agnostic.


I don't believe there is a god that has any direct bearing on this reality/plane of existence/dimension but I have no clue beyond that that other than fantasies/crazy ideas sloppily tying in physics with a hodgepodge of ideas.

You sure about these two? I thought agnostic theists were definite theists - just that they don't know which God of which religion is correct or, far more often, don't believe any of them are 100% and therefor its more likely that we just have to keep their ear to the ground in terms of reality to come to an understand as such (in that sense I believe this variety of agnostic theist is the most common type of theist you'll find on WP).

Agnostic atheist - that still fits under general agnostic, as does an agnostic who leans toward theism. You could have an agnostic who slightly leans toward theism who also happens to be theistically agnostic but, that's a whole other layer of complexity (though yes, also very common here).

this articles explains it all:

http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutagnost ... theism.htm




"People who are unafraid of stating that they indeed do not believe in any gods are still despised in many places, whereas “agnostic” is perceived as more respectable."

Very true indeed, there's a social stigma against atheists, calling them "closed-minded" while agnostics are called "open-minded".

Atheists and agnostics are always seen as same 'category' or 'allies', in many site's fill forms you can see the option "Atheist/Agnostic" as a one. In religious threads, agnostics usually agree with the atheists , many theists see them as one team.

There's a world of difference between atheism and agnosticism , agnosticism sounds a bit hypocritical to me when it comes to the creator of the universe, many non-fundie Christians and Muslims who don't believe everything in their holy books are considered agnostics at the core too. So considering atheism/agnosticism as one is very misleading and false.

Agnostics , I think it's time that for we and you to split up

Thus, I count most agnostics as atheists in practice.