Quote:
Originally Posted by Pim Pendergast
...An agnostic is someone who claims they don't know whether God (or a god) exists...
|
Close, but not quite, though most people misuse the word in exactly the same way (and I don't think this is the time or place for the "do people make the language or do dictionaries" argument).
Quote:
ag·nos·tic [ag-nos-tik] Show IPA
noun
1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience. Synonyms: disbeliever, nonbeliever, unbeliever; doubter, skeptic, secularist, empiricist; heathen, heretic, infidel, pagan.
from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/agnostic?s=t
|
It's not that that
they don't know, it's that we
can't know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alkalai
...Not exactly an atheist, which is why I didn't answer atheist to your religion question...
|
You're an atheist who either 1) still harbours doubt, 2) doesn't want to offend (yet still offends by being wishy-washy),
3) hasn't bothered thinking about it long enough to decide what you truly believe, or 4) is afraid of the term "atheist". So a weak atheist, where I'm a strong atheist.
At the same time, I'm still a bit agnostic, in that I hold that gods could exist because we cannot conclusively prove that they don't (like you cannot prove that there's not an invisible pink unicorn looking over my shoulder as I type this).
In the absence of proof, there is only belief, and due to mine, I live my life as if gods do not exist, and if you do the same, you're atheist.