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I keep wondering what you people who call yourselves "agnostics" on here claim to be agnostic about. You say "The existence of God". What's "God"? I just see 3 three alphabet letters there. Elsewhere I've seen where people have written that row of letters and said it means the row of words "creator of the universe". But for the life of me, I can't think of anything that any of those rows of alphabet letters or words refer to for you guys to be agnostic about. Please fill me in. I can't claim to be either a theist, an atheist, or an agnostic. The fact is that the sounds "God" or "creator of the universe" rings no more of a bell in my head than the sound "Zoz" rings in my head -- other than the fact I've observed that the sound "God" seems to trigger certain emotions and behavior in people who call themselves "theists", whereas the sound "Zoz" does not seem to do that to them.

EdwinMcCravy 5 Apr 13
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I am agnostic about the creation of the universe because there is no evidence of natural or other origin. I am not agnostic about the 4000 (est) religions and spritual traditions known to man (see link) because there is no evidence of deity. Therefore they are all constructs.

[en.wikipedia.org]

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The nature of a higher power can't be rational determined - agnostic, my paraphrasing. Having no faith that a higher power exists - Atheist. Seems pretty straight forward to me.

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What's wrong with my asking people to describe the mental concept they claim to have for the words "God" (capitalized, not "god" ), "Yahweh" and "Allah", when spoken by a Christian, Jew or Muslim? I simply do not have any mental concept for it. If you do, then wouldn't it make more sense to just describe it for me than to CHEW MY ASS OUT FOR ASKING IT?????

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Do you have any evidence to prove that "God", "Yahweh" and "Allah" are meaningful words? Surely you don't just assume they are 'on faith' like the theists do, do you?

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In my view atheist has become such a dirty word that the creator of this site was too scared to use the word in fear of causing offence. American cultures be strange to Brits.

It probably has much more to do with the availability and economics of domain names.

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I find it quite incredulous that you have no concept of what that word could mean.

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Neither Atheism nor Agnosticism are specific to any deity, let alone the Christian God. One word refers to the lack of belief in a deity or deities, the other as to whether or not it's even possible to know if one exists.

The difference between them is subtle, but one is not contradictory to the other.

The difference is a category distinction. All agnostics are atheistic,though not all atheists are agnostic

@chazwin That isn't really true. You can be agnostic and have faith. I don't understand that, but there is no logical reason it isn't possible.

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It's all about labels and it sparks many debates. I have discovered in my life that I have no evidence of a creator being and I am no longer a believer in one. I did believe in my past, but I was fooled by people who also had no evidence.

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Good point about this word and the reaction people have. Change the word God to "Gerald" and how would people react? "Gerald loves me. I'm agnostic about Gerald. Son of Gerald born of a virgin. It's the Will of Gerald." Gerald is just a sound formed in our brains expressed in speech. So is God. The word is used to provoke an emotional response. But it's just a word, a sound. Atheists like me either never have had, or have expunged, an emotional response to this sound. It's just a sound. It doesn't mean anything.

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Why do you need to be filled in? Like most of us here, you live comfortably without deities and the common words use to label them. Being defined as an agnostic simply means one realizes we have many fellow humans who won't give up their fantasies and religious cultures. We can live with that as long as they don't try to influence politics or education.

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Firstly, you have to understand that agnosticism isn't strictly about a god or gods, it's actually much broader than that.
This definition might help. [merriam-webster.com]

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Letters and words are symbols: upon which we hang meaning. Those symbols then take on meaning and emotion depending on context. If I say "goddammit" here on this site, chances are it will go totally unnoticed. If I said "goddammit" on a Christian Website, the hate comments would be down to the floor. The "N" word, a word I would never use, is considered highly volatile, but its all over the place in my iTunes playlist. Language if about way more than letters, words, and sentences... or sounds for that matter.

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We don't believe there is some divine creator nor an "ultradaddy" that surveils and punishes us. I'm not getting into discussions of philology or semantics because I don't care about that, and I see you posted this only to argue with all the people that post comments. Why don't you create the Group "Languaje" and post it there!

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I think maybe part of the reason you are having a hard time understanding the concept is that you are only giving credit to your own views and beliefs or lack thereof. When a person explains to you, for example, that they are agnostic, and that to them that means they have no definitive proof for or against a god or gods, and that based on that lack of proof they do not chose to pick a side, it isn't about weather or not a word has a particular meaning to you. Their response is to show what a word means to them, or makes them feel. It doesn't have to resonate with you in order to do so with them. It seems that you understand quite well what these people's replies mean, you just don't agree with them. That's ok. We don't all have to agree.

Byrd Level 7 Apr 13, 2019
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i'm not an agnostic. i'm an atheist. i still feel you may be addressing the likes of me, here. not everyone defines god the same way. some think "god is everywhere," meaning there is some kind of spirit in trees and clouds. others think he (always male, huh?) is a creator of universes. still others thing he, she or it is a caring entity who either controls things on earth or listens to prayers and either grants or denies them. i don't CARE. i don't believe in any supernational beings, be they leprechauns, all-knowing all-powerful creators, arbitors of who goes to the nonexistent heaven or the nonexistent hell in the nonexistent afterlife or just a spirit in a tree. it's all nonsense, and i have no emotional attachment to, or antipathy toward, any of it. i may have some antipathy to those who most energetically promoite it, and definitely toward those who blur the line between church and state.

by the way, "god" doesn't have three letters in every language. ALL words are just sounds. they hold whatever meaning, if any, has been assigned to them in any given language. the last part of your rant makes no sense at all. zoz. who cares?

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You said "...by the way, "god" doesn't have three letters in every language.... Haven't you noticed me listing "Yahweh" with 6 letters and "Allah" with 5 letters along with (capitalized) "God" (not "god" )? Did you really believe that I didn't know that? Do you not believe that I already knew without your telling me that I could replace "God" with "Allah" and "3 letters" with "5 letters" and say the same thing? Also, I repeat, it's "God", "Yahweh" and "Allah, not "god", yahweh, and allah. Zeus was a god. They drew pictures and made statues of Zeus that are still around today. Theists today do not believe in Zeus or ANY god. You say "words hold whatever meaning, if any, has been assigned to them in any given language." I notice you said "IF ANY". Hooray for you! There's hope for you to see the light, that religion is not belief in a god, but the belief that they believes in a god when they don't. Your "if any", makes me think you aren't sure that "God" is a meaningful word, right? Don't you realize that your saying that proves that you don't know what it means? Does it really mean anything? You've himted that it is meaningless TO YOU. You just think somebody else might know a meaning for it, right.

...the last part of your rant makes no sense at all. zoz. who cares?...

What's zoz? What's God, Yahweh, and Allah? I don't believe you know. zoz makes no sense, God makes no sense, Yahweh makes no sense, Allah makes no sense.
...Who cares?...
I care about humanity and believe that it desperately need to get rid of all religion. So I don't want anybody to have ANY KIND of BELIEF ON FAITH! And the belief that a row of letters means something even though you can't think of what it means. - is a kind of faith that I'd like to destroy. Wouldn't you like to destroy belief on faith? Now I'm NOT saying to destroy optimistic hope. That's a great thing to have. I'm talking about belief, not optimistic hope.

@EdwinMcCravy oh okay, i see you didn't understand a word i said and are still in the mood to rant in an incomprehensibly hostile way. go destroy something. whatever.

g

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I go back to Aristotle and his "Prime Mover" argument. In a chain of causality, where every effect has a cause, what is the prime cause? Is there a cause that is not the effect of another cause? St. Thomas Aquinas later used this argument to equate "God" with the "Prime Mover". "God" is a generic term to refer to a being that gives the universe purpose and intent, where otherwise everything would be random. In that context, exactly who "God" is is not relevant. Either such a being exists or it doesn't. As an agnostic, I would argue that I do not know enough about the nature of the universe to rule out the existence of the "prime mover". You can call it "Zoz" if you want, it doesn't change the argument. It just gives a verbal handle for the proposed supernatural entity.

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If you really want to know and not just being antagonistic, you can review hundreds of previous posts from hundreds of posters and you will understand where many of the contributors are coming from.

If you are being antagonistic please post something more erudite with substance so that an intelligent conversation can be engaged in.

Most of us here are more interested in considered discourse to develop understanding on subjects we are not so well informed in, not point scoring or knockabout Laurel and Hardy style argument.

The God/Not God debate is s but tired and pointless in a ‘live’ situation. Please contribute more meaningfully.

I'm not joking. I really and truly am unable to have a thought or mental concept of anything that I am able to believe that Christians, Jews and Muslims mean by their rows of letters "God", "Yahweh" and "Allah" respectively. Why do you think I'm joking or trolling? I don't get it. Why don't you just describe for me how you go about having whatever mental concept you have, so I'll know what you are talking about? Or are you only talking about rows of letters and how they trigger behavior in Christians, Jews and Muslims?

@EdwinMcCravy Okay. Perhaps the solution might be to contact the lead body of each of the Abrahamic religions and ask for their meaning of the G-O-D word. I am sure they would be most helpful.

@Geoffrey51 If you have a mental concept of God, why didn't you describe it for me yourself, instead of telling me to go ask somebody else. Or are you saying you're like me and have no mental concept of anything God could be either?

@EdwinMcCravy I’ve never considered it so I have no mental conception of it as I have no interest in it. I am about as useful to you in this regard as the proverbial chocolate fire guard which is why I suggest you ask of someone who would have some idea of what to tell you. As Bob Dylan said “It Ain’t Me, Babe”

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I can't understand what your saying. It's all just rows of letters.

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If you: "can't claim to be either a theist, an atheist, or an agnostic", then what are asking anyone else for?

To find out about you.

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The queendom of Zoz reigns supreme.

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