Yes Ian that does help explain a bit. However it is still not clear to me the differance in disbelife and absence of belife, which is why Iasked for a mundane example.
Let me try this one out on you then. I'm reading my paper keeping myself to myself on my morning commute, when I notice a bloke reading over my shoulder, when I turn to him he brazenly and cheeckily asks me to flip back to the horoscopes page so he can check out how his day will goe. I laugh and declare that that I do not accpet his claim that the movments of other planets and stars has any bearing on how our day will progress. Do I do so from an absence of belife in horoscopes or from a disbelife in the concept of them? What in all reality is the differance. Also if no agrument sways me to except the idea of a creator God, but at the same time I am unwilling to declare that I belive there exists no such thing, then am I not agnostic? On 30 July, 14:43, Ian Pollard <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Lee, > > I'll try my best... > > The theist makes a positive assertion about the existence of God. An atheist > is someone who does not accept the theist's claim; thus they are an > "a"-theist. Atheism is therefore only the absence of that theistic belief. > An atheist does not claim to know that God does not exist, only that the > arguments presented in favour, thus far, are insufficient hold such a > belief. > > Positively asserting that "there is no God" is further than any sensible > atheist would go. An "in joke" that demonstrates this very well is the > chapter of Richard Dawkin's 'The God Delusion' entitled 'Why There Almost > Certainly Is No God'. I could well believe that the nuances of this were > lost on some people, but there's no semantic word fuckery going on; this is > really what atheism is. > > What you continually describe, I think, is some form of escalated "strong > atheism" or obnoxious forum trolling. I've started to wonder whether this > particular kind of atheism only exists on Internet forums to antagonise > theists (see Chazwin's posts). In a sensible discussion I don't know any > atheist who would support such a position, hence I say your assertions about > atheism lead you only to a strawman. > > Look at the atheists you chat with here Mind's Eye; do I, Chris, Fran, or > anyone else, claim "there is no God"? > > Ian --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
