On 30 June 2014 04:43, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 9:44 PM, LizR <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> > agnosticism is of course the defining principle of the scientific >> method, so we really need the concept in order to understand the status of >> scientific theories. >> > > I like what Isaac Asimov, a fellow who knew a thing or two about science, > had to say on this subject: > > "I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been > an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually > unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that > one didn't have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an > agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of > reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove > that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't > want to waste my time." >
So he knows that he only has enough evidence to be agnostic, but he is emotionally convinced to be an atheist nonetheless. OK, so that puts him on a par with religious believers who are also emotionally convinced, though not of the same thing. -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
