Math Unites Atheists and Believers

Out of boredom I came up with a way to quantify a persons faith in god or doubt in his existence. Many people are agnostics and we won't openly say that god doesn't exist but we also won't say that we believe in him. This is because we are rational people. We have doubts that god exists, but we also accept that maybe there is a god because we can't prove or disprove god's existence. So now let's use a number to represent our belief or doubt in god. I call it our "Agnostic Factor". The Agnostic Factor is the chance that you think that there is a god. So it's like we're betting on whether there is a god or not and you have to take some kind of odds for your money before you decide to make a bet.
I was raised christian and don't go to church or read the bible in any way so I say that there is a 1/5 chance that there is a god. I call myself an agnostic. I then asked my brother the atheist what he thinks the chance of a god are and he said 1/100. I didn't have a religious person to test and so I assume that people who say that they believe in god will say a number better than 1/2. Now the limits of the Agnostic Factor are 1 and 0. However, these numbers are unattainable without oversimplifying or rounding. A really big atheist might say that there is a 1/1000 chance of there being a god, but this is 0.001. I believe that no atheist no matter how hardcore they say they don't believe in god can give a number of 0. 1/100000000 is not 0 unless you simplify and say that it is approximately zero, but this is not the true number. Now for religious people. I believe that many religious people will say that there is a 1/1 chance of there being a god. But I don't feel that this is truly being honest. I believe that the most religious people in the world will not honestly have a number greater than 1/1.05. Therefore the limit of 1/1 is impossible.
Now I define that a person who says that they believe in god has an agnostic factor of 1 > AF >0.5
And I define that a person who claims to be an atheist has an Agnostic Factor of 0.05 > AF > 0.0001
And then of course the selfproclaimed agnostics have an agnostic factor of 0.5 > AF > 0.05
As you can see, all people have an agnostic number between 0 and 1, but never 0 or 1. Therefore, everybody is limited to the chance that they think that there is a god. So religious people and atheists are just people that are either rounding up to 1 or rounding down to 0. We are all therefore agnostics defined by our agnostic factor. And since we are all the same, we can give thanks to math for uniting us all. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[bocablkr]

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A really big atheist might say that there is a 1/1000 chance of there being a god, but this is 0.001. I believe that no atheist no matter how hardcore they say they don't believe in god can give a number of 0. 1/100000000 is not 0 unless you simplify and say that it is approximately zero, but this is not the true number.

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You really don't understand an Atheist do you. My number would be exactly zero - there is absolutely no chance of a god in my opinion. Zero, nada, zilch!!!! If the number was even .00000000001 I think that would be an Agnostic because there still is a very small amount of doubt.

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A really big atheist might say that there is a 1/1000 chance of there being a god, but this is 0.001. I believe that no atheist no matter how hardcore they say they don't believe in god can give a number of 0. 1/100000000 is not 0 unless you simplify and say that it is approximately zero, but this is not the true number.

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You really don't understand an Atheist do you. My number would be exactly zero - there is absolutely no chance of a god in my opinion. Zero, nada, zilch!!!! If the number was even .00000000001 I think that would be an Agnostic because there still is a very small amount of doubt.

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When you say there is no chance of a god, are you saying no chance of a day-to-dat traditional god, or no chance that the universe was somehow influenced by some higher being? Because if its the latter, then you can't say exactly 0% because you have absolutely no data beyond the universe.

And your comment "you really don't understand an atheist" seems to suggest that, like your opposing theist, you willingly choose to make categorical conclusions without objective evidence.

[bocablkr]

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A really big atheist might say that there is a 1/1000 chance of there being a god, but this is 0.001. I believe that no atheist no matter how hardcore they say they don't believe in god can give a number of 0. 1/100000000 is not 0 unless you simplify and say that it is approximately zero, but this is not the true number.

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You really don't understand an Atheist do you. My number would be exactly zero - there is absolutely no chance of a god in my opinion. Zero, nada, zilch!!!! If the number was even .00000000001 I think that would be an Agnostic because there still is a very small amount of doubt.

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When you say there is no chance of a god, are you saying no chance of a day-to-dat traditional god, or no chance that the universe was somehow influenced by some higher being? Because if its the latter, then you can't say exactly 0% because you have absolutely no data beyond the universe.

And your comment "you really don't understand an atheist" seems to suggest that, like your opposing theist, you willingly choose to make categorical conclusions without objective evidence.

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NO CHANCE THE UNIVERSE WAS INFLUENCED BY A HIGHER BEING - PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can't tell me I must believe a little bit because I have absolutely no data beyond the universe. That is ridiculous. Because I don't have all the answers to the beginnings of the Universe I must somehow leave open the possibility that a god created it - why? How does that follow? Must I also leave open the possibility it was created by a one-eyed Unicorn. I can't prove it wasn't. You just don't understand a true Atheist.

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You can't tell me I must believe a little bit

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I'm not telling to believe anything, you've already decided to believe something w/o evidence, I choose NOT to believe a little bit or a lot of bit that which I have no evidence of.

[bocablkr]

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You can't tell me I must believe a little bit

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I'm not telling to believe anything, you've already decided to believe something w/o evidence, I choose NOT to believe a little bit or a lot of bit that which I have no evidence of.

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You are confusing me - you say I believe in something without evidence. I believe there is no God because there is no evidence of his existence. That is wrong? What about people that believe in god even though there is no evidence?

[RJT]

This is wrong:

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My number would be exactly zero - there is absolutely no chance of a god in my opinion.

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You cannot say “...there is no chance of a god...” and then qualify it with “in my opinion”.

You can say “...there is absolutely no chance of a god.”; but then you have to be able to back up that statement with a logical proof.

You can also say “I believe there is no chance of a god.” That is akin to saying I believe in any particular theory, for example “ I believe that the theory of evolution is correct.”

You can say even this, if you wanted to, “I am 100% certain that there is no god.” But, then, quoting John Lennon, “…you ain’t gonna make it with anyone, anyhow.” That is to say your credibility would be shot. There is no such thing as 100% certainty in a belief.

[bocablkr]

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This is wrong:

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My number would be exactly zero - there is absolutely no chance of a god in my opinion.

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You cannot say “...there is no chance of a god...” and then qualify it with “in my opinion”.

You can say “...there is absolutely no chance of a god.”; but then you have to be able to back up that statement with a logical proof.

You can also say “I believe there is no chance of a god.” That is akin to saying I believe in any particular theory, for example “ I believe that the theory of evolution is correct.”

You can say even this, if you wanted to, “I am 100% certain that there is no god.” But, then, quoting John Lennon, “…you ain’t gonna make it with anyone, anyhow.” That is to say your credibility would be shot. There is no such thing as 100% certainty in a belief.

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This is ridiculous. I always laugh at people who say you can't be 100% certain of something. Why, because you say so. You can be 100% certain about something and yet be totally wrong. It is how you feel about something not whether it is true or not. To imply that I can't be certain implies that I have some doubt no matter how small. But I do not. Do you need to do a mind meld with me to prove it?

As for the John Lennon song - what are you saying? Every one of my friends (and I have quite a few) know how I feel about God. That has not hurt me in the least. It has never hurt me in my love life or at work. I make more than 95% of all engineers in the country (according to the latest EE times poll). And everyone knows what an avid atheist I am.
Who is my credibility shot with - you???

[RJT]

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This is ridiculous. I always laugh at people who say you can't be 100% certain of something. Why, because you say so. You can be 100% certain about something and yet be totally wrong.

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I didn’t really want to make a big issue about it.

In hindsight, I think my tone might have come across as terse. I didn’t mean it how it might if sounded, so I apologize if I can across as terse.

But, I am 99.99 ad infinitum % certain that I am correct.

I did not say that someone can’t be 100% certain of something.

One can be 100% certain of facts, proven math formulas and the like.

One cannot be certain of anything subjective. One can have an almost certainty about just about any opinion one chooses.

One can have an opinion he is 99.99..ad infinitum % confident in. So, long as the words ad infinitum are not omitted.

But to say one is 100% certain in something that is not proven or verifiable is improper use of the English language.

If you insist on saying that you are 100% certain in anything that is a subjective opinion literally makes no sense is all.

Are you so sure I am incorrect? I have already admitted that I am only 99.99 ad infinitum % confident in what I said. And this isn’t even an opinion matter - the subject of who is correct here is verifiable.

[chezlaw]

Can be I be pedantic for a moment (clearly I can [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img])

100% certain is a a grammatical tautology

99% certain is an oxymoron

chez