> -----Original Message----- > From: Dinner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2007 4:42 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Christian's: Paranoid or not > > 1*:* a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is > unknown and probably unknowable; *broadly* *:* one who is not committed > to > believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god > > 2*:* a person unwilling to commit to an opinion about something > <political * > agnostic**s*> > > "Probably unknowable" sounds a bit more optomistic than "there is no > god", > dont' you think? No higher power, vs., maybe there's no higher power, > even? > I mean worst case, that still sounds more open, to me.
It IS more open - I never said it wasn't. The basic idea is that it's unknowable - there could be or there couldn't be but there's no way for us to know for sure either way. "The is no God" is atheism, not agnotism. Basically in the last 200 hundred years or so "Agnostism" and "Diesm" kind of melded in conversation, which is a little sad since we've lost some precision when discussing things. Of course all three are generally anti-organized religion so their often lumped together anyway. > God, I love patterns too. And self-organizing systems. And quantum > stuff. Who doesn't? ;^) Honestly that's part of the fun of be atheistic: you get to figure all this stuff out. Since you can never fall back on the God of the Gaps argument (as in "here's something so strange it must be the work of God") you're constantly challenged with wonder. It's hard not read Isaac Asimov or Carl Sagan (both atheists, both full of giddily wonder for the natural world) and not have their infectious awe make you smile. There are many, many writers like that. What gets my dander up about "The Golden Compass" affair is that if you can yank Pullman off the shelves for being an atheist, why not them? Where does it stop? Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion is delivering applications solutions at at top companies around the world in government. Find out how and where now http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm?event=finder&productID=1522&loc=en_us Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:247952 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
