[PLUG-TALK] Holy-Smoke

Michael Moore moore.michael.m at gmail.com
Tue Oct 4 18:17:54 UTC 2011


On 10/3/2011 9:31 PM, Russell Johnson wrote:
>
> Actually, I am agnostic, not atheist. I do not claim that there is nor
> that there is not a God. I feel comfortable in this position due to the
> fact that there are things that I can not explain, yet I can not
> definitively state for a fact that there IS in fact, God. Neither
> position has been proven beyond a doubt.

That's a definition I've seen often but never quite understood.  I take 
theism as requiring a positive, assertive belief -- that is, as I 
understand faith, one either believes in the existence of a creator or 
one does not.  Those who do are theists, those who do not are atheists.

Agnostics, I thought, are those who express significant reservations 
about their faith, not those who merely refuse to assert definitively 
that there is a God or is not a God.  By your definition, I would be 
agnostic because I hold that the question about whether God exists can 
never be answered definitively.  It will always be a matter of opinion 
(or, really, a matter of faith or the lack thereof) not a matter of 
fact.  There are many theists and atheists who agree on that score, and 
who still call themselves theists or atheists as the case may be.  The 
concepts of "doubt" and especially "faith" are intrinsic to Christian 
theology, at least.

Michael




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