Not at all. I was raised Christian and no interpretation of which I am aware says I can sit confused and still be alright if I happen to meet God after dying, nor is that my intent.
Originally Posted by tracer
Not saying that. But right up until the very second of death, most religions allow some sort of repentance to forgive everything, but you have to allow for the possibility of that belief, which I don't. Agnostic athiests, agnostic thiests, and theists leave themselves an "out" so to speak.
Sounds to me like we hold the same opinions, but are separated by semantics. There is obviously no proof there is a God. Hell, even Christians admit there is no proof, that it requires faith. Atheists refuse to do the same. Atheists argue they KNOW there is no God. I am not blessed with such wisdom. My thoughts are founded in a scientific and pure logic approach.
Originally Posted by tracer
Then you must admit that there is no god. Applying the scientific method to the study of a god automatically rules out such an existence. Having a theory that a god exists doesn't mean that it exists, nor does it mean that there is even a possibility of existence. The beauty of the scientific method is that it's constrained by our current understanding of the universe and a "fact" today doesn't necessarily mean that same thing is a "fact" tomorrow. There is no valid application of the scientific method to try and prove that something doesn't exist. It simply doesn't exist until the scientific method proves that it does. Leaving the existence of a god as a theory is fine, but that doesn't even begin to prove that a god doesn't NOT exist. Where agnostics have trouble is that they REFUSE to accept the scientific and logical facts and still somehow hold that we cannot possibly know a "truth" when in fact a "truth" is known right this very second.
For some reason, people tend to think of a god as something that even if we have no scientific evidence that it exists, that somehow induces a doubt in their minds that it may STILL exist and we just don't know about it. That thinking doesn't hold true for anything else in our world as universally as the god concept.
Thus, I will tell you that I do not believe there to be a God, but cannot prove it.
Originally Posted by tracer
Then you're an athiest, you're not a true agnostic. True agnostics refuse to believe in either the existence or nonexistence of a God.
The only difference between myself and an Atheist is that they state their opinion as fact. I state the same opinion, but acknowledge that it is opinion.
Originally Posted by tracer
Again, not a true agnostic view. True agnostics refuse to accept an opinion either way about God. Agnostics don't care about proof or opinions, they think that we cannot possibly know if God exists or doesn't exist, and hence will never have an opinion or belief either way. Agnostic athiests believe as you do.
Atheists and Christians are completely identical in furor over someone stating the obvious, that there is no way either will ever prove themselves correct. One or the other may present a much stronger case, as I believe to be the case, but proving is an entirely different thing.
Originally Posted by tracer
Again, athiests don't have to prove that a god doesn't exist. That's like saying that Anti-nuclearists have to prove that an element with an atomic number of 122 doesn't exist. We don't have to prove any such thing, right now, today, in our frame of reference, it doesn't exist! Until someone makes that discovery, it doesn't exist. Right now, today, there has been no discovery of a god, so a god doesn't exist, but for some reason people still have to leave a little room for doubt (probably because they're psychologically scared of the reprecussions of a possible afterlife brought on by religious people), and they say that athiests have to prove a god doesn't exist, which is incorrect. God doesn't exist until someone proves he does, that's the end of the story.
You do know what an agnostic is right? Agnosticism has nothing to do with a belief in a god, it has to do with the KNOWLEDGE of such things. Theists have a belief in a god. Athiests have an absence of a belief in a god. Agnostics try and sit themselves on the fence to justify their indecision, when in 99% of the cases their decision is already made. A true agnostic has no belief, opinion, feeling, or anything else about the existence of a god. An Agnostic Athiest has an absence of belief that a god exists but believes that they must prove that, and they can't. An Agnostic Theist has a belief that a god exists but admits they can't prove it. I've only met one true agnostic, and I've had this conversation a LOT since I first started exploring my "religious beliefs" eight years ago.
Athiests, Agnostic Athiests, Agnostic Theists, Theists. If you're even talking about a god (except to offer up that you have no opinion), you're not a true agnostic. Almost everyone falls as either an athiest or a theist. I despise true agnostics, and don't have much respect for agnostic athiests or agnostic theists, but that conversation is much different and a bit longer.
At the end of the day, you're still an athiest, you just see fit to put qualifications on it, which even according to your own reasoning, are wrong, but that's still your option.