<p>Atheists believe god doesn't exist. but how can they know/prove that? even if they point to evolution, evil, injustice, etc, or provide evidence, they don't have proof that there isn't a god. i'll take evolution as an example: couldn't god have set evolution into motion?(if you debate me on this, you're missing the point) Since atheists don't have PROOF, shouldn't they be agnostics?(unsure if god exists, but probaby not OR one can never know one way or the other). of course, i'd guess you could say the same for godbelievers that you can't have proof. i don't know, but if you're atheist, i'd like to know what proof you have, and why not consider yourself agnostic instead? thanks.</p>
<p>"you could say the same for godbelievers that you can't have proof"</p>
<p>correct.</p>
<p>Well by your logic, as you said yourself, everyone can be only agnostics since neither side of the issue can be proven</p>
<p>im agnostic btw.</p>
<p>I don't like how you titled this though because you could say it anyway; "shouldn't god-believers be agnostic?"</p>
<p>It's just what people believe and what proof/evidence they believe.</p>
<p>If a boy in your school claims that he is the son of God,what will you say?
will you say"no,he is silly,I can't believe it"or"well..I don't have evidence to prove that he isn't.I'm agnostic about that"</p>
<p>Religion is not about fact,it's all about belief.Christians often argue that there's no way to prove the existence of God but there is God and they can feel it and believe it.
I am atheist and I show disbelief.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Well by your logic, as you said yourself, everyone can be only agnostics since neither side of the issue can be proven
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Absolutely!Anyone can create a weird theory that cannot be verified.And all of us cannot deny it,we have to be agnostic about it.</p>
<p>That's why they are beliefs, not laws</p>
<p>I'm actually an agnostic but generally when questioned about my faith I tend to say that I'm an atheist (unless I'm engaged in a technical debate on that issue). Honestly speaking, if I say that I'm an agnostic it generally tends to mislead people into thinking that I'm a semi-believer of some sort. Then it becomes really hard for me to explain that even though I technically accept that the existence of God is possible, I also have to technically accept that the existence of the Pagan Gods and Godesses is possible in the same way.</p>
<p>Are you agnostic towards the Cookie Monster, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Allah, Shiva, alchemy, palm reading, Tarot cards...</p>
<p>You can't just pick one area to apply your logic to because it's convenient.</p>
<p>As I wrote on another forum (good stuff...pm me if you want the url) I really AM agnostic about everything. God could exist, sure. Proof? Not quite. Science creates "facts" with proof but facts and their proof have been "proven" wrong before and will undoubtly be proven wrong in the future.</p>
<p>Can you be sure of anything? nope. That is how I live my life. People can believe in religion, in science, in anything but they can not "know." Maybe there will be a day when people can "know" because everything is cumulative. Will that day ever come? Who knows. I don't. What's a day anyway?</p>
<p>Hahaha I sound fairly crazy right now.</p>
<p>Atheism is not the position that no God or Gods exists; rather, it is the position that the theistic God or Gods do not exist. Atheists always base their disbelief on the apparent (in their view) weaknesses of the theistic explanations of God and God's exstence. They say that the explanations of the God or Gods of theism do not make sense; therefore, why should they believe in the God or Gods of theism? Atheists may very well believe in a non-traditional (non-theistic) God, such as Baruch Spinoza or Einstein did -- a "naturalistic" God.</p>
<p>Just clearing things up. For the record, I am a theist (Catholic Christian).</p>
<p>atheism is sort of a more specific kind of agnosticism. my friend is an agnostic but he follows the catholic religion and goes to church and all of that. so even though he's agnostic, he can be considered a catholic. i am agnostic as well but i don't follow any religion, so i say i'm atheist. that's about as well as i can explain it, i hope this didn't just confuse you more ;)</p>
<p>I think agnosticism is illogial. By saying "I know that I cannot know anything about God" isn't that a statement of knowledge about God? That He is unknowable? So you're saying that you know that you can't know...which is self-refuting. </p>
<p>Whatever...</p>
<p>Golddustwoman, someone on CC once explained agnosticism in a great way and I'll share that with you right now. I'm really sorry to whoever explained it this way for "taking it from you" or whatever. Make your prescence known if you see this.</p>
<p>Here we go.
Say there's a school test. An essay question is "Does God exist?" A theist would write down their answer and, if it was wrong, get mad that they got a 0. An atheist would write down their answer and, if it was wrong, get mad that they got a 0. An agnostic would write down "I don't know" or just keep the paper blank and accept that they got a 0.
An agnostic declares ignorance though this does not always mean that they are ignorant (though I'm sure some are). Get what I'm sayin?</p>
<p>
<p>You can't just pick one area to apply your logic to because it's convenient.
I'm not sure anyone here still believes in the Cookie Monster, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. As for Allah and Shivah, they are religious beings, so if you're agnostic, you probably unsure of them. I know many agnostics that have never been interested in alchemy, tarot cards, or palm readings. </p>
<p>And, people can choose to apply logic in any situation they want. No one says because you apply logic to solve a math problem, you have to apply logic when discussing religion.</p>
<p>I think some of you are unclear on what atheism really is. It is not a nonbelief in a religious higher being, it is simply saying that you can't prove to me that God exists, so to me, maybe he doesn't exist. And agnosticism is sorta similar to atheism but also a little different. Agnosticism says that there is no absolute or certain proof that God exists so you can't prove it, but maybe he does exist...</p>
<p>The underlying argument behind atheism and agnosticism are the same, it's the conclusions that make them differ.</p>
<p>Forgive me if I'm wrong (which some of you are deff. saying) but I'm pretty sure atheist is defined actively disbelieving in the existance of a God or Gods.</p>
<p>Agnostism, meaning "no knowledge" in Latin, is when people claim they don't know. There are agnostics who lean more to "there prob isn't one" while others lean towards "there might be one." What some of you seem to be defining as "atheism" is a actually a form of agnosticism.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reference.com/search?r=13&q=Athiesm%5B/url%5D">http://www.reference.com/search?r=13&q=Athiesm</a>
Atheism, as a philosophical view, is the position that either affirms the nonexistence of gods or rejects theism. When defined more broadly, atheism is the absence of belief in deities, alternatively called nontheism. Although atheists are commonly assumed to be irreligious, some religions, such as Buddhism, have been characterized as atheistic because of their lack of belief in a personal god.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reference.com/search?r=13&q=Agnosticism%5B/url%5D">http://www.reference.com/search?r=13&q=Agnosticism</a>
agnosticism, form of skepticism that holds that the existence of God cannot be logically proved or disproved. Among prominent agnostics have been Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, and T. H. Huxley (who coined the word agnostic in 1869). Immanuel Kant was an agnostic who argued that belief in divinity can rest only on faith. Agnosticism is not to be confused with atheism, which asserts that there is no God.</p>
<p>A theist believes in a God(Gods), an athiest does not, an agnostic leaves it for debate seeing that they believe there really isn't any way of knowing.</p>
<p>okay, so we basically wrote the same thing, WatchMeShine...or maybe I should have been clearer in my post... I meant that just because you are atheist doesn't necessarily mean that you are irreligious.</p>
<p>But like I said, the underlying principles of atheism and agnosticism are the same (that there is no proof God exists) but the conclusions are different (atheism posits that because you can't prove God's existence, he doesn't exist and agnostics believe that even though you can't prove it, God MAY exist).</p>
<p>yes, but I don't think that there's a gray area for athiests; they just don't believe. Just like a theist does believes.</p>
<p>An agnostic is based off the gray area.</p>
<p>
Yes, that's true. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you are hostile to religion (i.e. some defintions of irreligious).</p>
<p>Ah. ok. yes.</p>