No; lack of a belief regarding a supreme being is the very definition of agnosticism. Atheism, by contrast, is the belief in the nonexistence of a supreme being.
What religion/faith are you?
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Agnostic is a bit of an I'll defined grey area.. And many sub definitions.. One is a belief of miracles while another is not..
It's all personal, believe what you want to believe, as I've said in other threads.. 7 billion other heathens in the world. Be nice to each other.
my one caviot.. Don't prothalitze or push me to any opinion.. This includes atheism.. If I want to know more , I'll find you
It's all personal, believe what you want to believe, as I've said in other threads.. 7 billion other heathens in the world. Be nice to each other.
my one caviot.. Don't prothalitze or push me to any opinion.. This includes atheism.. If I want to know more , I'll find you
It's a terminology problem. There are different types of atheism, positive vs negative.
There are also different types of agnosticism. Wikipedia has more info [but this is not an endorsement of the information there].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Positive_vs._negative
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#Types
There are also different types of agnosticism. Wikipedia has more info [but this is not an endorsement of the information there].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Positive_vs._negative
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#Types
Look, yes, technically the proper term for what I am is agnostic atheist, but I'm actually not spending that much time thinking of how to define and call my religious beliefs, because I don't fucking have any!
Most of "us" don't try to determine what to call ourselves beyond the commonly used "atheist", because there is not much of "ourselves" anyway. There is no atheist community. We don't go around talking to random people sayin' "May we talk to you about the world and the non-existence of god?" The whole point of being an atheist is that we don't do shit like that. There is no Book of Athe that we all carry with us, and before you ask, I have never read a single phrase written by Richard Dawkins, because that is not how atheism works.
I went to a Christian school, already an atheist, but that was fine, it wasn't that kind of Christian school. They also had Muslim students, and I certainly wasn't the only atheist student. But there still was another kid, a Christian girl, who apparently felt threatened by the very notion that somebody around her didn't have a religion, she became very aggressive anytime I even asked a question.
At some point I got into a new course, and the teacher about finding out I didn't believe in god asked if it was because it "wasn't cool". At the age I was, I just shook my head, because I couldn't formulate the words "I don't need a reason not to believe, I'd need a reason to believe".
I'm an atheist not because of what I believe, but because what I don't believe.
When I have to fill out a form, and they ask religion, I don't write "atheism", I write "none".
Most of "us" don't try to determine what to call ourselves beyond the commonly used "atheist", because there is not much of "ourselves" anyway. There is no atheist community. We don't go around talking to random people sayin' "May we talk to you about the world and the non-existence of god?" The whole point of being an atheist is that we don't do shit like that. There is no Book of Athe that we all carry with us, and before you ask, I have never read a single phrase written by Richard Dawkins, because that is not how atheism works.
I went to a Christian school, already an atheist, but that was fine, it wasn't that kind of Christian school. They also had Muslim students, and I certainly wasn't the only atheist student. But there still was another kid, a Christian girl, who apparently felt threatened by the very notion that somebody around her didn't have a religion, she became very aggressive anytime I even asked a question.
At some point I got into a new course, and the teacher about finding out I didn't believe in god asked if it was because it "wasn't cool". At the age I was, I just shook my head, because I couldn't formulate the words "I don't need a reason not to believe, I'd need a reason to believe".
I'm an atheist not because of what I believe, but because what I don't believe.
When I have to fill out a form, and they ask religion, I don't write "atheism", I write "none".
You're presupposing the existence of god which atheists are actively denying. I don't have to disbelieve in the ghosts that follow us home from the funeral which my wife wards off with a stash of salt before we get to the house. Koreans believe it, though. Atheists aren't disbelieving in god any more than I do those salt eschewing Korean specters.
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It might be more accurate to say that one can be agnostic on the subject of god/s, but also atheistic on the subject of particular gods.
It all depends on how the god is defined: the attributes and behaviors that it is alleged to have, the deeds it has supposedly accomplished, and so forth.
The Deistic god, for example, is a considerable bit harder to be atheist about than the Christian god.
It all depends on how the god is defined: the attributes and behaviors that it is alleged to have, the deeds it has supposedly accomplished, and so forth.
The Deistic god, for example, is a considerable bit harder to be atheist about than the Christian god.
Atheist: I believe in the total randomness of everything that happens to us. The universe is not cruel, it just is. Tomorrow a black hole could go by and make a light* snack of our planet and even our sun and the universe would continue as if nothing happened.
*there's a pun there...
*there's a pun there...
Christian all my life; also leaning toward Deism.
I was Wiccan. I now embrace Christianity.
That's pretty close. Agnosticts don't know if there is, and isn't sure you could prove it either way.
*ba-dum-ching*
Did you know that at the center of our galaxy there is a big black hole of four million solar masses? Every once in a while a star comes too close to it and it is gulped down like nothing. Andromeda, the galaxy closer to ours has a black hole of one hundred million solar masses. Pretty much all galaxies have one and some of these black holes reach 20 billion solar masses, 5, 000 times ours!!!
So the black hole scenario is much less unlikely than it seems.
So the black hole scenario is much less unlikely than it seems.
You do realize, though, that those black holes you're talking about are very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very far away, right?!
The closest one of those, the one at our Galactic Center, is over 26,000 light years away. Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away. And black holes are usually not moving fast enough for astronomists not to notice, so, no, unless Neil deGrasse Tyson pushes the Doomsday Alarm, I think we can concentrate on more likely existential threats, like climate change or the restart of the nuclear arms race.
The closest one of those, the one at our Galactic Center, is over 26,000 light years away. Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away. And black holes are usually not moving fast enough for astronomists not to notice, so, no, unless Neil deGrasse Tyson pushes the Doomsday Alarm, I think we can concentrate on more likely existential threats, like climate change or the restart of the nuclear arms race.
Those indeed are far away but there could be (a smaller) one roaming nearby, undetected. It's hard to detect black holes unless something is orbiting around them or they are currently swallowing something really massive. A BH of three solar masses is more than enough to do the trick and we wouldn't know it's coming for us until it is too late, IE until we could sense its effects.
i bet the odds of it happening are..
astronomical
The odds of anyone of us being alive today a hundred years ago were pretty low, let alone all of us together!!!
If it weren't us, it would be other people, who wouldn't know the difference. Have you never read A Sound of Thunder?!
That's not what I am talking about. I am referring to the butterfly effect. A single atom changed a hundred years ago would have made our existence more improbable than an army of black holes crossing the solar system this instant.
"The idea that one [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly']butterfly could eventually have a far-reaching ripple effect on subsequent historic events made its earliest known appearance in "A Sound of Thunder", a 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury about time travel."[/url]
The fact remains, the one changed atom you're talking about was not changed, it was how it was. Unless the Multiverse theory is correct, then there's another (or rather several) universe(s) out there where it was changed.
But I think you're original point was about atheists believing in the randomness of the universe and our not-at-all-special place in it. On that I agree. Which is why we should live life to its fullest, and we should try to make certain apocalypse scenarios that we have an influence over (climate change, nuclear warfare) less likely.
You know if you consider either the possibility that the universe has always existed (Big Bang followed by Big Rip followed by Big Bang followed by Big Rip ...etc...) or the multiverse, or both. then everything that is probable has already happened an infinite number of times. Like according to the quantum theory there is a possibility that the moon turns into cheese (matter is essentially a mix of electrons, protons, and neutrons, change the arrangement of these and anything can become anything else, dirt can become cheese or anything else. Quantum theory says that everything is possible in that area). So there would be a(n) (infinity of) universe(s) where things very improbable would happen. In fact in some of these universes, these things would happen so often that most people would firmly believe in magic!!! including people who would have become scientists in ours.
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