AGNOSTICS INTERNATIONAL (Agnosticism)

by dhw, Tuesday, February 07, 2012, 18:28 (4671 days ago) @ romansh

ROMANSH: I would argue that it is the agnostics who are in the garden (including Eden) and it is the theists, atheists, deists and dare I say it panentheists who are sitting uncomfortably on their various climbed pickets.-I must confess I'd never thought of it this way, but I quite like it. Those who have made their decision ... i.e. theists and atheists ... may (and sometimes do) look down from their lofty heights on their opponents to the right and on the don't-knows to the left. But they are always vulnerable ... to new discoveries, to new experiences, and of course to all the arguments that undermine their subjective beliefs. At any moment, your theist/atheist may fall from his perch. Only the agnostic has nowhere to fall. I wouldn't call it Eden, but then I don't believe Eden ever existed!-ROMANSH: I suppose it all boils down to how we handle the words know, believe, and think. Of course there are a few others, including the biggie faith.-I can't remember if you took part in our epistemology discussion a year ago, but you might be interested in certain definitions we agreed on. Absolute truth was unattainable, but then came:-Knowledge: "information which is accepted as being true by general consensus among those who are aware of it."-Belief: "information which individuals accept as being true although there is no general consensus on its truth."-I see faith simply as a strong belief, often in a religious context, which doesn't require any further definition.