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Badger (stealth) - Larro: No it wouldn't. She did her math right. o.o
And yes, I'm being silly - but this whole question is for fun, yes, Olivia? ^.^
And yes, I'm being silly - but this whole question is for fun, yes, Olivia? ^.^
Jul 15, 2011 (edited Jul 15, 2011)
Wayne Chen - Atheism isn't a percentage. You can't be 50% atheist, you would be agnostic. Atheism is the belief in no gods. Zero. Nada.http://dictiona
Jul 15, 2011
Jul 15, 2011
Dave Pearson - Wayne, "50% atheist" wouldn't mean "agnostic". You can be an agnostic atheist or an agnostic theist. Agnostic does not mean "undecided" or "somewhere between". You can't be just agnostic.
And the idea of being an atheist in respect to one or more posited deities is a sound one. If you hold a belief in god A but don't hold a belief in gods B, C, D or E then it's right and proper that you be described as an atheist in respect to those posited gods.
And also note that (to the wider point here), the existence of those gods has nothing to do with this. You wouldn't be an atheist in "the eyes of those gods", you'd be an atheist, in respect of all the gods you don't hold a belief in, in your own eyes and everyone else's.
And the idea of being an atheist in respect to one or more posited deities is a sound one. If you hold a belief in god A but don't hold a belief in gods B, C, D or E then it's right and proper that you be described as an atheist in respect to those posited gods.
And also note that (to the wider point here), the existence of those gods has nothing to do with this. You wouldn't be an atheist in "the eyes of those gods", you'd be an atheist, in respect of all the gods you don't hold a belief in, in your own eyes and everyone else's.
Jul 15, 2011
Ralph Mettier - Actually Wayne, that wrong. The theist/atheist question deals with if you believe that one or more gods exist or not. The gnostic/agnostic question deals with what you 'know'. These two are not exclusive. If you are uncertain if a god exists or not, but tend to think it's slightly more likely no gods exist, that makes you an atheist. If you claim to know that no gods exist, that makes you a gnostic atheist. If you think it's likely that a god exists, but not certain, you're an agnostic theist. etc.
Jul 15, 2011
Jul 15, 2011
Aaron Faby - Atheism is simply the default position concerning belief in the existence of a deity. No more, no less.
Jul 15, 2011
Jul 15, 2011
Jon Cortelyou - So by this logic, since I'm a human I'm therefore less than 1% mammal? Because there are 100's of mammals in which I'm not.
Jul 15, 2011
Jul 15, 2011
Aaron Faby - No, not really. The atheism comparison is made in reference to the other gods someone could choose to believe in. You cannot choose to be another species, so therefore you cannot say you are a certain percentage mammal in relation to something else.
Jul 15, 2011
Jul 15, 2011
Tony Sidaway - One is one hundred percent unbeliever with respect to the other gods. Actually I believe the first first
Jul 15, 2011
Tony Sidaway - Recorded use of the word atheist was to describe the Christians, who denied the Roman gods.
Jul 15, 2011
Aaron Faby - No. A percentage is calculated based on a number of possibilities. It's possible for someone to believe in any of the 100 theoretical gods in this analogy. It's not possible for a human to not be a human or a mammal.
Jul 15, 2011
Kraken Calamari - that only works in the case of a finite number of gods. In the case of an infinite number of gods, anyone who believes in any finite amount of them is still 100% atheist.
Yesterday 1:04 AM
Olivia Cassandrae - Comparison between atheist and mammals is called regression in Maths. They are no way related but we are calculating both in same manner and trying to fit two of them under one umbrella.
That's also one kind of Math of course.
That's also one kind of Math of course.
Yesterday 1:04 AM - Edit
Olivia Cassandrae - +Ralph Mettier that's a wonderful explanation. But I did not understand a bit. Hmm! It's so confusing, atheist, agnostic atheist, agnostic theist, theist, and so on . . .
It'll take some time to digest your definitions, but they sounded so cool.
It'll take some time to digest your definitions, but they sounded so cool.
Yesterday 1:06 AM - Edit
Kraken Calamari - I'm just extending the hypothesis to accommodate and infinitude of deities.
math was my first love :)
math was my first love :)
Yesterday 1:15 AM
Yesterday 1:17 AM
Dave Pearson - It strikes me that the 1/100 thing is a misused example here anyway, or at least is heading off the rails. The point, when it comes to it, is normally this:
I've got a book on my bookshelf that lists something like 3,000 posited deities from all of recorded history. When confronted with a theist who can't understand why I'm an atheist they generally always think in terms of the deity they are positing.
It helps to remind them that my being an atheist has nothing to do with the god they believe in, it's to do with all posited gods. And the key point here is that myself and that theist have a 2,999 posited deity overlap.
It's a line of reasoning that aids them in appreciating and understanding how one can be an atheist at all because they are, in effect, an atheist in respect to 2,999 posited gods, I just go the one more.
It's an old line of explanation, but a key one.
I've got a book on my bookshelf that lists something like 3,000 posited deities from all of recorded history. When confronted with a theist who can't understand why I'm an atheist they generally always think in terms of the deity they are positing.
It helps to remind them that my being an atheist has nothing to do with the god they believe in, it's to do with all posited gods. And the key point here is that myself and that theist have a 2,999 posited deity overlap.
It's a line of reasoning that aids them in appreciating and understanding how one can be an atheist at all because they are, in effect, an atheist in respect to 2,999 posited gods, I just go the one more.
It's an old line of explanation, but a key one.
Yesterday 1:28 AM
Hugo Moors - I've heard Matt Dillahunty (from the Atheist Experience) explain it as such (and I agree with him):
as long as you don't say "I know god exists" you're an atheist if you say maybe god exists, I'm not sure ... you're an atheist with various levels of gnosticism the reasoning is that "atheist" means a lacks of a positive believe in a god, if you doubt in any way you do not have that positive belief only the ones who say "I know god exists" have such a positive believe in a god and thus are not atheists.
But most people spin their own definitions, I've seen questionaire results where people ticked atheist and a few questions further ticked "I believe in god" so anything is possible.
as long as you don't say "I know god exists" you're an atheist if you say maybe god exists, I'm not sure ... you're an atheist with various levels of gnosticism the reasoning is that "atheist" means a lacks of a positive believe in a god, if you doubt in any way you do not have that positive belief only the ones who say "I know god exists" have such a positive believe in a god and thus are not atheists.
But most people spin their own definitions, I've seen questionaire results where people ticked atheist and a few questions further ticked "I believe in god" so anything is possible.
Yesterday 1:35 AM
Tony Sidaway - Theists (and like many people I was raised as a theist) do tend to regard their own god's existence as self-evident. You can compare their god to the others but I don't think they often take that approach seriously. You really do need to combine it with a head on attack on their god's plausibility.
Yesterday 1:41 AM
Dave Pearson - +Hugo Moors Atheists who say they believe in a god exist all over the place. Here we call them The Church of England. ;-)
Yesterday 2:09 AM
Dave Pearson - You should be the next Archbishop of Canterbury. I'm sure by the time the current one gives up they'll stop being horribly sexist and let women hold that position.
Yesterday 9:24 PM
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