Is there a god? Quick poll.

[ZeeJustin]

[spamuell]

Yes, flame me, it will be good for me.

[ZeeJustin]

[ QUOTE ]
ag·nos·tic n.

a. One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
b. One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.

[/ QUOTE ]

Someone who claims A is basically saying that God is defined in a such a way that its existence or lack there of cannot be proven by any scientific means. Most of these people will still lean towards "there is a god" or "there isn't", but they are not only unsure of themselves, but unsure that mankind will ever provide an answer to this question with any amount of certainty.

Someone who claims B simply is torn between what they were raised to believe (this is a generalization obviously), and what their life experiences and reasoning have lead them to believe. Most aethiests were agnostic for a good amount of time.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

because it's possible to be borderline between athiest and agnostic. I claim agnosticism just to keep from having to argue from the athiest point of view. there's just not quite enough concrete evidence in support of atheism to bother trying to argue with people who are completely convinced of a position with equally no (scientific concrete) evidence whatsoever, but whom are far more determined to convince you of their point of view, evidence or not. You see, I don't give a [censored] whether I can convince YOU there's NO god, but that will rarely be the same from a religious person. Therefore I claim agnosticism, even tho I am really more of an athiest.

al

[spamuell]

Someone who claims B simply is torn between what they were raised to believe (this is a generalization obviously), and what their life experiences and reasoning have lead them to believe.

That is me.

But at the end of the day, when all is said and done, when [insert other cliché here], no one can really KNOW, so clearly agnositicism is the only real option, even if one leans towards either side at one point or another.

[ZeeJustin]

Oops, lol. I misread your question. I thought you were asking how anyone could be agnostic [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

I'm not going to get into this argument just yet.

[Taxman]

How do you know, you know what you know? Point being, it is possible for some people to know there is a God, just as it's possible for you to know you phone number, just for different reasons.

[ACPlayer]

How about -- it does not matter whether there is a god and discussions of god are a purely academic exercises in philosophy.

We also know that academic exercises are best left to liberals.

[RcrdBoy]

Isn't being agnostic just another way of saying that you can't make a decision?

You either believe or you don't. I don't know how you could half believe or partially not believe.

I can understand that you may not have thought about it enough. Or that you have views that are conflicted and you haven't resolved them, but that's being unsure.

Saying you are agnostic takes a stance that says you don't have one.

-Mike

[bernie]

you can have a very strong decision not to believe the fairy tale(s) that has been told, but still believe there was something that started it all. just because you dont know 'what' it is and cant put a name to it, doesn't make it a black and white decision.

that's not indecisive. that's not accepting something someone made up just to placate one's need to 'have' to know.

i personally, dont think we could comprehend what created everything.

this from a recovered catholic turned agnostic.

b