cliveb wrote: > Pardon me for butting in but as a confirmed atheist I'd like to give you > my definition. As I see it, an atheist is someone who positively belives > there is no God. There's no need for them to declare that they "know" > that God does not exist, just that on the balance of probabilities it > seems highly unlikely. > > Meanwhile I always thought that an agnostic is someone who has not made > up their mind over God's possible existence and prefers to sit on the > fence. Just because something is impossible to prove absolutely doesn't > mean you have to decline taking a stance. Therefore I find agnosticism > to be the logically indefensible position, given the overwhelming weight > of evidence that is available.
Hi Clive! It is fair to say that my own life experience (total lack of any convincing "spiritual" intervention or sensation) has pushed me very close to your own position, and if I were a betting man I should certainly wager that there is no God, or at very least none with the remotest interest in human affairs. I did initially declare myself to be "strongly agnostic", and the above position is what I meant. I think it's all a bit semantic: a gnostic is someone who asserts a personal spiritual connection with God, and a large group of such people were branded as heretics by the Catholic Church in mediaeval times and ruthlessly persecuted to extinction. Agnostic is the opposite: someone who has no experience of a God. I'm amused by the different stances taken by the 2 French philosophers Pascal & Voltaire, if you will indulge me for a moment: Pascal said that faced with such uncertainty, one should believe in God because the alternative would condemn you to everlasting damnation if you turned out to be wrong. Voltaire, who lived to a great age & had never embraced religion, found himself confronted on his death-bed by a priest summoned by Voltaire's family who was earnestly entreating him to repent of his mortal sins & receive absolution. The great man fixed the priest with his dying eye & remarked words to the effect of "Sir, this is no time to be making new enemies!". Steadfast to the last... Anyway, I don't think there is much practical difference in our own respective stances - I think that I might have made my position somewhat clearer at the outset. Dave :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Golden Earring's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=66646 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=106914 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
