Debate : 25079


Off-Topic / Debate / 25079	25078 \| 25080

Subject:	Re: Santorum Fails In His Effort To Pervert The Constitution
Newsgroups:	lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date:	Mon, 26 Jul 2004 20:08:02 GMT
Viewed:	2583 times

In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Eaton wrote: > In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler wrote: > > In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Eaton wrote: > > > In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler wrote: > > > > Okay, okay, I'll buy that. But in casual conversation and in debates in > > > > general, can you give me a term to use that will be as readily understood > > > > as "atheist?" > > > > > > What's wrong with "agnostic"? > > > > I dislike that term because it's often seen as too wishy-washy, or a way to > > hedge one's bet. It can also carry a connotation of undecidedness, due not > > to a lack of evidence but a lack of conclusion. Additionally, if you say > > "I'm an agnostic" to 100 people on the street, I'd guess that better than 90 > > of them would understand you to mean "I haven't made a decision re: which > > religion is right for me, but I think that one of them is." > > I definitely agree-- to be agnostic is really to be undecided. And if you really > simply "don't believe in God", but *would* if given sufficient reason, then I'd > say agnostic matches pretty well. Not the way I understand what an agnostic is. An agnostic holds that the ultimate truth about God existing or not existing is not knowable. That's not undecided, though many undecided people misuse the term "agnostic" to describe themselves. An agnostic is holding a firm position, undecided people aren't (contrast 1) You can't prove to me that God does or does not exists, with 2) Maybe God exists, maybe he doesn't, Idunno). Describing an agnostic as "undecided" is like calling a scientist undecided about the theory of relativity because he can change his conviction based on later evidence. -->Bruce<--

Message has 2 Replies:

		Re: Santorum Fails In His Effort To Pervert The Constitution
(...) For the sake of a disclaimer I should probably underscore that my use of "undecided" in this context was to address a popular connotation of the word agnostic, rather than a literal denotation. Dave! (20 years ago, 26-Jul-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

		Re: Santorum Fails In His Effort To Pervert The Constitution
(...) Huh! I guess I've never really investigated the meaning; rather I've just gone by how people use it (which, for philosophic terms, I'm more inclined to doing anyway, and reject outright whatever a dictionary says if it tells me differently (...) (20 years ago, 26-Jul-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:

		Re: Santorum Fails In His Effort To Pervert The Constitution
(...) I definitely agree-- to be agnostic is really to be undecided. And if you really simply "don't believe in God", but would if given sufficient reason, then I'd say agnostic matches pretty well. (...) Hmmm. Not really. I guess I see a (...) (20 years ago, 26-Jul-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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