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Author Topic:   Does Atheism = No beliefs?
PaulK
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Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
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(1)
Message 222 of 414 (774640)
12-20-2015 4:00 AM
Reply to: Message 219 by kbertsche
12-20-2015 12:18 AM


Many self-identified agnostics claim to take no position on whether God exists. Therefore it seems perfectly possible to not believe that God exists without believing that God does not exist.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 219 by kbertsche, posted 12-20-2015 12:18 AM kbertsche has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 223 by Tangle, posted 12-20-2015 4:07 AM PaulK has replied
 Message 225 by Hyroglyphx, posted 12-20-2015 5:25 AM PaulK has not replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.2


(1)
Message 224 of 414 (774644)
12-20-2015 4:31 AM
Reply to: Message 223 by Tangle
12-20-2015 4:07 AM


I'm not engaging in any word acrobatics which is why I'm not in a mess. In fact I carefully avoided it.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 223 by Tangle, posted 12-20-2015 4:07 AM Tangle has seen this message but not replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.2


Message 363 of 414 (827465)
01-26-2018 1:06 AM
Reply to: Message 362 by GDR
01-26-2018 12:25 AM


quote:
Well you can’t call them a theist because they don’t claim to believe in an deity that is engaged in any sense with creation
So we can call him a theist in the general sense, which includes Deists. As your quote says:
Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of the Supreme Being or deities
That broad definition is clearly right.
quote:
I don’t understand the objection to using the term agnostic. It certainly seems to fit the definition used in the last sentence of this wiki quote.
The obvious objection is that it doesn’t describe the position that you’re asking about. He can be an agnostic as well - provided you allow that atheists can be agnostics too (and a lot of people don’t). But it doesn’t describe the fact that he believes that there is a god of some sort.

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 Message 362 by GDR, posted 01-26-2018 12:25 AM GDR has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 364 by GDR, posted 01-26-2018 1:59 AM PaulK has replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.2


Message 365 of 414 (827467)
01-26-2018 2:29 AM
Reply to: Message 364 by GDR
01-26-2018 1:59 AM


quote:
He simply believes that life is the result of an intelligent creator. He doesn't believe that this intelligence is to be worshipped or that the intelligence rules in any sense of the word.
That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t think that it is a god. We’re talking very general theism here, not monotheism
Anyway, atheism, theism and agnosticism all relate to belief in God or gods. If you haven’t given his view on that then none of those terms are applicable.
So at this stage either he is a theist or you haven’t given us the right information.

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 Message 364 by GDR, posted 01-26-2018 1:59 AM GDR has not replied

  
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