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Old 12-09-2005, 04:27 PM
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Default Re: A question for Christians AND atheists

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Isn't that an agnostic?

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agnostics are a subset of atheism. A-theism = lack of a belief in god. It can be chopped up various ways from there but the answer to the initial question - "Do you believe in God(of some definition naturally)" is answered "No" by an agnostic.
The second question "How do you view this topic?" is where the subsets take over.

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I think of the terms as describing two different aspects of belief -- two variables, if you will. The "theism" variable describes the objective part of the belief (god vs. "no god"), whereas the "gnosticism" variable describes the certainty with which that belief is held. Thus, you can have "agnostic Christians" and "gnostic Atheists" and everything in between.
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