During this conversation between Penn Jillette and Richard Dawkins:
Yet I also agree with Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, in that I describe myself as an 'anti-theist' given that 'atheist' is a derogatory word created by religionists.
And, that not believing in a god dude is not a prerequisite to not wanting any totalitarian shitheads telling me what to do so they can feel good about their mental illness.
"Agnosis" means "lacking knowledge." To be an agnotic is just being clear about one's unknowing.
None of us can know what happened before the bang. Was it the action of a supreme being? I don't think so. But I cannot know.
"Atheism" is about thinking that there is not a deity hanging out on earth playing with us.
After reading A Manuel For Creating an Atheist I have habbitually asked agnostics if they are agnostic regarding the existence of Santa Clause. I understand Agnostics as not knowing if God exists due to lack of offical proof he does or doesn't exist. Since the burden of proof is on the believer to prove God exist, we should all be atheist until someone prodivdes a better argument than faith.
It seems like special pleading. If I were to ask whether or not they believed in unicorns I'd expect that they don't believe. Perhaps the atheist label is scary too or unfavorable.
@AustinSkepticus Ya they are what I call soft Atheist, or Safe Atheist. They simply will not confront religious people like I.
Did you watch the end of the video?
I do not claim to know with certainty whether or not deities exists, nor do I actively believe in any deities, since deities and the claims made about them have not met their burden of proof. At best I can say that the deities that humans have contrived are highly improbable, but there is a much larger probability of one that is not defined or known by humans to possibly exist. Yet I still don't believe in that one either because it has not been demonstrated and it is merely speculation. It's also possible that deities do no not exist and are a construct fabricated by humans. Do you think dogs or cats think god's exist? So yep both agnostic and atheist whoopy.