[ SECRET POST #2631 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2631 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 048 secrets from Secret Submission Post #376.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Religion

[(Anonymous)]

I'm an agnostic, more or less. I was raised Catholic, but Church was always more a family thing than a religious thing for me. When I realised (not drastically or anything, just sort of noticed one day) that I pretty much hadn't ever believed, I read around for a while at the various ideas people had about religion. I found some ideas that I liked more than others - a lot of the theism/pantheism/deism strands were interesting, and the Brahman strands of Hinduism - but in end I realised that none of them clicked to the extent that I could honestly say "I believe this is the way things are".

However, I never much got the hard atheist ways of thinking either, because the sensation of trying to prove a negative ran me into the exact same problems. I couldn't honestly say that I believed there was no force out there that might be called a deity in some form or another. I just basically didn't have the proof/information.

Agnosticism fits me, more or less. I honestly don't know what shape the universe is or what forces may inhabit it. I think I more or less figure that whatever religion is right, if any, I'll find out when it comes time to meet the maker or whatever, and we'll sort it out then. Until then I'm just gonna life my life as seems most right from first principles, and if the powers that be want to argue with me about it come end of days, I can do that too. And if the hard atheists are right and it's just an empty void beyond death, well, then I don't have to worry about it none either. I'll get there when I get there, and we'll see what way it works then.

Until then, I've got more pressing things to be worrying about, you know?

Re: Religion

[cassandraoftroy]

However, I never much got the hard atheist ways of thinking either, because the sensation of trying to prove a negative ran me into the exact same problems.

Atheism doesn't require you to prove a negative. It's simply the refusal to give intellectual assent to the claim that any gods exist. I'm not going to tell you how you should label yourself, but when you say, "I realised that none of them clicked to the extent that I could honestly say 'I believe this is the way things are,'" that's how I feel about all theistic claims, and that makes me an atheist.

Re: Religion

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

I think this part does mean I'm not an atheist, though: I couldn't honestly say that I believed there was no force out there that might be called a deity in some form or another.

I don't believe there is one/more, but I don't necessarily believe there isn't one/more either. I just don't know what it/they is/are. I lean more towards theist than atheist agnostic, though if it turns out atheists are right I'm probably not going to be overly disappointed. (Well, at all really, but that's because oblivion probably doesn't allow for much in the way of disappointment). There are a few religions out there that I find more plausible than others, as I said, just none to the extent that I could honestly call it belief.

I don't think agnosticism necessarily means uncertainty, you know? Sometimes it's maybe just 'acknowledgement of confirmation pending' instead. I'm naturally deficient in belief in the absence of definitive proof, but I can roll with it if the universe turns out to be a different shape than I previously thought it was.

Re: Religion

[cassandraoftroy]

I think this is a definitional problem. An atheist doesn't necessarily need to claim that no gods conclusively exist -- rather, he simply sees no reason to believe in any. When you say, I'm naturally deficient in belief in the absence of definitive proof, I see that as pretty much the definition of atheism. An atheist withholds intellectual assent from god-claims because they are unconvincing. Going he extra step of asserting certainly that no gods exist is not something that all atheists do, nor is it necessary to qualify for atheism.

Agnosticism isn't actually incompatible with atheism (or theism) as a position, because they are answers to different questions. Gnosticism/agnosticism is about knowledge, and theism/atheism is about belief. An agnostic atheist, for example, makes no claim to know whether any gods exist or not, but has no belief in their existence. A gnostic atheist, on the other hand, claims to know that no gods exist. Both of them are atheists because they have no belief in the existence of gods, but only one is making a claim of certain knowledge.