On Wed, Feb 1, 2017 at 3:50 AM, Brent Meeker <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote: > > > On 1/31/2017 9:32 AM, Telmo Menezes wrote: >>> >>> Are you really agnostic about the god of theism? >> >> Quoting from wikipedia: >> >> "The term theism derives from the Greek theos meaning "god". The term >> theism was first used by Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688).[5] In Cudworth's >> definition, they are "strictly and properly called Theists, who >> affirm, that a perfectly conscious understanding being, or mind, >> existing of itself from eternity, was the cause of all other >> things".[6] >> Atheism is commonly understood as rejection of theism in the broadest >> sense of theism, i.e. the rejection of belief in a god or gods.[7] The >> claim that the existence of any deity is unknown or unknowable is >> agnosticism.[8][9]" > > > So the existence of any deity, say Yaweh or Zeus or Baal, is unknown or > unknowable? > >> >> I would say that, under these definitions, the correct scientific >> stance is to be agnostic. > > > And exactly why would you take a definition from a 17th century theologian > and Platonist as authoratative?
Because he invented the term... As you know, in my opinion "god of theism" is an ill-defined entity. In my view it could refer to a number of different things, some more unbelievable, or at least inconsistent, than others. But I know you don't agree with me on this, so I resort to the original definition. > Are you also agnostic about polytheism and > pantheism and deism? Does agnostic mean you think nothing can be known > about these questions - or does it just mean you're not absolutely certain > about the answer. Means that I am not absolutely certain. Of course, I have a landscape of likelihoods in my mind. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to make a living performing intellectual work. Well, I wouldn't even be able to go to the supermarket. I apply the scientific method. Maintaining intellectual honesty requires me to admit that there is a non-zero probability that I am crazy or highly delusional. Notice that Trump does not seem to have that capability. See where it leads... That is what I mean by intellectual humbleness. Atheism as an ideology seems sterile to me. It doesn't solve any problems. It does not add to scientific knowledge, nor those it resolve the problems created by organised religion. Nor those it make a sincere effort to understand why organised religion and bizarre beliefs are still popular in the year 2017. Telmo. > Brent > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
