> first off, does each and every atheist believe this > way or could you possibly be painting with and > incredibly large brush. I know I don't get up and > affirm to myself "I believe there is no god", ...
Nor do most Christians wake up and say, "Wow, so glad Jesus saved me!" Some do, some don't, but that's the idea of Christianity, right? Just as the idea of atheism is a belief that there is no god. I'm not attacking individuals or the extent to which they believe in the idea, just that I see a contradiction in that idea and that it doesn't work for me. > "At least agnostics admit their ignorance and just > say "I don't know" with complete honesty" > > hey, nothing to take offense in there right. it's > not like you imply that atheists are ignorant, but > they just won't admit it. Perhaps I could have worded that better, but the whole idea of faith is to believe that the idea is correct in the absence of evidence. The absence of evidence implies ignorance about the facts, so by definition anything that relies on faith requires a certain amount of ignorance, and that's not a bad thing in and of itself, or something to take offense to. That's just the nature of the beast. Perhaps there is a god, perhaps there isn't. There's nothing wrong with choosing a particular belief system and sticking to it if it works for you. However, there really isn't any way to really know and prove unequivocally that any one of the competing ideas is correct, otherwise the debate would have been settled long ago. A certain amount of ignorance has to be accepted as a part of faith in something. That's the basis of the statement someone else quoted earlier, "I am ignorant, and so are you." Sorry if that offends you. > I'll admit though, my earlier post about the zombie > thing was offensive and really not called for -- I > still need work in this area. That was a caricature of Christianity that I doubt anyone would seriously take offense to. My suggestion in all of this would be to not take things like this personally. I'm looking at concepts and ideas and pointing out my own observations about them. I'm not attacking you personally, or anyone else for that matter. Just because we don't drive the same car doesn't mean I don't like you. :) -Justin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:301277 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
