Atheism (Agnosticism)

by Jake, Saturday, January 19, 2008, 09:25 (6152 days ago) @ David Warden

I think this is a really important thread. Someone would have to be a fanatic or else pretty stupid to be a 100% anything - even Dawkins puts himself at 6 on a scale of 7. But the reason you've given for being an atheist raises some interesting questions. I've only read the first few pages of Wilson's tract and his reply to George Jelliss's piece above on the origin of life, but I've had to reassess my own percentages. I see myself as an atheist, because if you ask me "Do you believe in a god?" my answer will be a 90% no. But if you ask me "Do you believe in Chance?" in all honesty I can only give you about a 75% yes. It's much easier to say what you don't believe than to say what you do, and it hadn't really hit me that atheism involves a degree of faith. I sort of agree with what you say about agnosticism, but the choice is not quite so clear-cut once you have to opt for a belief instead of a non-belief.