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Old 05-29-2005, 10:46 AM   #168 (permalink)
Jinn
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Location: Seattle, WA
Sorry for the double post, but I noticed a post specifically pointed at me.

As per RCAlyra2004:

Quote:
My friend says that she has a big green dragon in her garage. You look into the garage where she says it is but cannot see the dragon or hear the dragon or touch the dragon. Reasonable use of Occam's Razor logic says that the lack of evidence indicates that my friend is incorrect. She could also be lying or deluded.

You can be agnostic about my friend being a liar, or agnostic about her being deluded. But if you are agnostic about the big green dragons existence you have just bought into the "assumption" that it could exist in the first place.

What’s worse is that you did it without any evidence at all.
Quite honestly, we make no assumptions. That is why I believe the Agnostic belief to me the most in line with Occam's Razor. I do not assume there is a Purple Dragon. I do not assume there isn't a Purple Dragon. By doing so, I am more open for alternate assumptions. A holographic portrayal of the dragon, therefore. Turned off, the Atheist could assume that a purple dragon cannot exist in the garage. Turned on, they would be incorrect.

I think the major blockade in this somewhat-offtopic discourse on Atheism vs. Agnosticism is a poor definition of terms.

Quote:
OK JinnKai, lets be really clear about what an atheist is. "Atheism is the state either of being without theistic beliefs, or of actively disbelieving in the existence of deities. Atheism is not necessarily an entrenched position against a deity, but it can be. Atheism is often described as "not seeing any evidence for" any deities."
This is a contradictory explanation, and it is incorrect. This is an Agnostic viewpoint. Atheism, per American Heritage Dictionary 2000:

Quote:
a·the·ism
n.

1.
1. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
2. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.
This means: there is no God or Gods. Period. Scientific reasoning or however we chose to prove it, there isn't one.

Quote:
ag·nos·tic
n.

1.
1. One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
2. One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.
I am skeptical, but I am not convinced. THIS is Agnosticism.
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