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What's The Difference Between Atheism And Agnosticism ..

A_Lost_Man

Will agnostics ever feel peace?

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s7ryf3925pivug

Agnostics are hippies. Atheists are logical. Except the ones into spirituality. They are also hippies.

smacl

A_Lost_Man wrote: »

Will agnostics ever feel peace?

Why wouldn't they? In this day and age where religion has a greatly diminished role in our society for most people, whether or not you feel at peace has more to do with other non-religious factors. e.g. cycling down a quiet country road in the crisp October sunshine yesterday afternoon I was very much at peace, nothing to do with religion. I'd imagine many people stuck in traffic were rather agitated, again nothing to do with religion.

Michael OBrien

agnosticism, if referring to theism, refers to not knowing if a god exists or not. People who choose to define themselves as only agnostics are ill informed on what atheism is. Atheists simply don't accept the claims about god existing. Thats it. Agnostics ALSO don't accept the claims, but are triggered by acknowledging that fact and have to reflexibly say they don't "know god does not exist" as if that matters. No one cares about knowing something does not exist, what matters is knowing if it exists. Theists believe their god exists, agnostics reject that claim, making them atheists.

magicbastarder

atheist: i don't believe in god.
agnostic: i don't know if there is a god.

that's it.

Cabaal

A_Lost_Man wrote: »

Will agnostics ever feel peace?

But the bigger question is

Will A_Lost_Man ever feel peace?

smacl

A chart similar to the one below usually gets dragged out during these conversations. I like this one as it distinguishes between explicit and implicit atheism.

smacl

Another chart that bears consideration is scale of belief, though worth noting that belief in 'a god' is not the same as belief in God (i.e. adherence to a specific religion)

atheist%2Bscale.png

Odhinn

Cabaal wrote: »

But the bigger question is

Will A_Lost_Man ever feel peace?

...escape his eternal cycle of ban and re-reg, ban and re-reg? Doubt it.

Kidchameleon

Unless you have visited every corner of the universe and can confirm that god does not exist, you are agnostic

The high horse brigade

Kidchameleon wrote: »

Unless you have visited every corner of the universe and can confirm that god does not exist, you are agnostic

I haven't been to every corner of Ireland but know that leprechauns aren't real

one world order

Atheists deny God's existence, agnostics are on the fence.

smacl

one world order wrote: »

Atheists deny God's existence, agnostics are on the fence.

Whereas theists claim a god exists bit just can't seem to agree on which one. And even those that apparently worship the same god seem to be in continuous conflict with one another. Why is that do you think? Mysterious ways perhaps?

splinter65

smacl wrote: »

Whereas theists claim a god exists bit just can't seem to agree on which one. And even those that apparently worship the same god seem to be in continuous conflict with one another. Why is that do you think? Mysterious ways perhaps?

For me the mysterious bit is that atheists believe, rather superstitiously, that everything came..............from nothing.

Pherekydes

splinter65 wrote: »

For me the mysterious bit is that atheists believe, rather superstitiously, that everything came..............from nothing.

The mystery is that theists can't seem to grasp what atheism means.

No matter how many times it's explained to them.

Must be some kind of superstition.

splinter65

Pherekydes wrote: »

The mystery is that theists can't seem to grasp what atheism means.

No matter how many times it's explained to them.

Must be some kind of superstition.

Atheism is just disbelief in the existence of “god”. What else is it?

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Atheists are militant in their beliefs. Agnostics are a bit more passive when it comes to “god”.

I’m an atheist myself but not on the Rocky Gervais scale.

smacl

splinter65 wrote: »

Atheism is just disbelief in the existence of “god”. What else is it?

There are lots of god that people have belived in throughout the ages and continue to believe in. The difference between atheists and most theists is that atheists believe in one less of them.

Kidchameleon

The high horse brigade wrote: »

I haven't been to every corner of Ireland but know that leprechauns aren't real

I "knew" nothing could travel faster than light then I discovered quantum physics

smacl

Kidchameleon wrote: »

I "knew" nothing could travel faster than light then I discovered quantum physics

And what did you discover precisely?

Pherekydes

splinter65 wrote: »

Atheism is just disbelief in the existence of “god”.

Correct.

But that's not what you put in your previous post.

Kidchameleon

smacl wrote: »

And what did you discover precisely?

That things could travel faster than light (look up quantum entanglement)

Anyway...

I suppose the question depends on what your definition of "god" is. If its the version the religious texts speak about then yes, I know that does not exist.

But "god" could be defined as a being who created the universe we live in. That is a "god" I dont think we can rule out. When you read enough material about AI, simulated worlds etc. you realize that someday a human could theoretically create a universe teeming with AI minds. To those AI minds, the human who created them and their world would fill many of the requirements to be defined as a god. Remember that the human being in that scenario would have godlike abilities at least as far as the AI minds would be concerned. A simple change of source code and that universes gravitational constant could be changed for example. Pulling the plug on the simulation and they all die etc.

Are we living in a simulated iniverse and therefore have a creator of some sort? I dont know, probably not. But I cant rule it out.

Will someone ever create a simulated universe with coscious inhabitants? Many great thinkers of today beleive it is likley.

splinter65

Pherekydes wrote: »

Correct.

But that's not what you put in your previous post.

So if you don’t believe in god then it follows logically that everything that we know of came....from nothing.
If not, where did it come from?

Cabaal

Kidchameleon wrote: »

Unless you have visited every corner of the universe and can confirm that god Thor does not exist, you are agnostic

Fixed it!

You can never say ever say Thor doesn't exist by your own logic,
May lightening strike none believers

Cabaal

Kidchameleon wrote: »

That things could travel faster than light (look up quantum entanglement)

Anyway...

I suppose the question depends on what your definition of "god" is. If its the version the religious texts speak about then yes, I know that does not exist.

But "god" could be defined as a being who created the universe we live in.....

One persons "all powerful god" is another persons normal person.

What we can do now would seem like a powerful god 500, 1000 or 2000 years ago. But I suppose its much easier to just believe in a god then use some critical thinking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uii5WrmChbE

Then of course things can be massively exaggerated when stories are told by word of mouth, after going through loads of people and being written in a book odds are they'll seem much more impressive then they actually were!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIy_PfLFWPA

smacl

Kidchameleon wrote: »

That things could travel faster than light (look up quantum entanglement)

Anyway...

I suppose the question depends on what your definition of "god" is. If its the version the religious texts speak about then yes, I know that does not exist.

But "god" could be defined as a being who created the universe we live in. That is a "god" I dont think we can rule out. When you read enough material about AI, simulated worlds etc. you realize that someday a human could theoretically create a universe teeming with AI minds. To those AI minds, the human who created them and their world would fill many of the requirements to be defined as a god. Remember that the human being in that scenario would have godlike abilities at least as far as the AI minds would be concerned. A simple change of source code and that universes gravitational constant could be changed for example. Pulling the plug on the simulation and they all die etc.

Are we living in a simulated iniverse and therefore have a creator of some sort? I dont know, probably not. But I cant rule it out.

Will someone ever create a simulated universe with coscious inhabitants? Many great thinkers of today beleive it is likley.

I think it is entirely possible that we will create a conscious AI which may well be hosted in a virtual universe of its own. This doesn't make us gods by my understanding of the word, though as you say that depends very much on your definition.

The idea that our universe is such a virtual space is not new. From memory Elon Musk, among others, buys into this idea. While it might well seem less far fetched than a religious notion of creation and an Abrahamic God, it nonetheless falls into the realm of speculative fantasy until such time as someone comes up with some strong supporting evidence.

With respect to atheism versus agnosticism, my take on it is that I don't believe a god or god exists and therefore I'm an atheist. The belief, like most of my beliefs, is based on balance of probability. Any one of an infinite number of fantastic assertions that I can't disprove could in theory be true, but I've no good reason to assume any specific one of them is true.

A_Lost_Man

Some atheists are anti-fundamentalists and anti-theists. They mind expressions of religion and get angry in the name of region and with this hate they become hater and feel enjoyment in hurting other people faiths and making fun of them. What is difference between such atheist and uneducated people.

Mark Hamill

splinter65 wrote: »

So if you don’t believe in god then it follows logically that everything that we know of came....from nothing.
If not, where did it come from?

The original hot dense singularity that underwent the Big Bang and the universe expanded from.

realdanbreen

magicbastarder wrote: »

atheist: i don't believe in god.
agnostic: i don't know if there is a god.

that's it.

Doesn't that mean then that anyone who is not an atheist is an agnostic?

Nobody, even the pope or the head man in the muslim religion, knows for a fact that there is a god. They may believe there is or have a faith that there is but there is no way that they can know that there is surely.

magicbastarder

well, i've met far more believers who have said to me 'i just *know* in my bones that there's a god' than i've met atheists who 'know' there isn't.

smacl

A_Lost_Man wrote: »

Some atheists are anti-fundamentalists and anti-theists. They mind expressions of religion and get angry in the name of region and with this hate they become hater and feel enjoyment in hurting other people faiths and making fun of them. What is difference between such atheist and uneducated people.

Just my opinion, but those who are anti-theist and anti-fundamentalist tend to take that position because they've suffered some form of abuse at the hands of organised religion. This can be as simple as having an unwanted belief system and anachronistic notion of morality foisted upon them and their family, or something altogether more serious.

You actually get a lot of codified hatred in organised religion. Notions such as homosexuality, heresy, blasphemy and apostasy being punishable crimes are good examples of this. Many religious traditions are also deeply misogynistic which rightly draw a strong negative reaction in modern civilised society. Where religion gets ridiculed today where it wouldn't have been in the past is probably a reaction to this.

I think fundamentalists tend to be more a source of ridicule than hatred by and large, unless of course they're trying to push their own oft times hateful ideology on others.