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Sure, you can develop some of your own beliefs, but when you admit you can't prove a whole lot (including atheism) what's wrong with that?
I know its nice to have that reassurance, but not knowing does not prevent what is to come from coming, and who really know?
I have my own beliefs, but many were developed by first realizing that I just don't know. There are something like 10 Trillion cells in my body and a similar number of stars. There is so much I don't know, and I'm okay with that.
Sure, you can develop some of your own beliefs, but when you admit you can't prove a whole lot (including atheism) what's wrong with that?
I know its nice to have that reassurance, but not knowing does not prevent what is to come from coming, and who really know?
I have my own beliefs, but many were developed by first realizing that I just don't know. There are something like 10 Trillion cells in my body and a similar number of stars. There is so much I don't know, and I'm okay with that.
There's nothing wrong with it. It's a valid, and oft-used (by me, anyway) answer.
Life is a journey of discovery but even if we lived forever, we'd still be chasing the answers to some questions.
Sure, you can develop some of your own beliefs, but when you admit you can't prove a whole lot (including atheism) what's wrong with that?
There is nothing inherently wrong with saying you don't know. But it's funny to me that this stance is usually only taken with respect to the question of God. Hardly anybody ever says they're agnostic about anything else.
There is nothing inherently wrong with saying you don't know. But it's funny to me that this stance is usually only taken with respect to the question of God. Hardly anybody ever says they're agnostic about anything else.
I guess God gets special treatment.
Really? I admit that I don't know about a lot of things. I don't know about the origins of the universe. I don't know if there is life on other planets. I don't know what caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. I don't know what exists in other galaxies. I don't know what causes global warming or if global warming in fact, exists. I don't know what causes autism. I could go on and on.
Sure, you can develop some of your own beliefs, but when you admit you can't prove a whole lot (including atheism) what's wrong with that?
Admitting you don't know is the first step toward wisdom, as the axiom says. One cannot learn anything if one thinks he already knows the answer to everything. I consider myself a lifetime student will never stop learning because there is always something I don't know.
I do, however, wish to discuss a certain caveat to this philosophy when religion is involved. Most atheists will admit that they can't know with 100% certainty that there is no god of some kind. The reason why we are atheists is because there is no evidence that a god of some kind exists. This is often where theists make the mistake of thinking that atheism is the diametrically opposite viewpoint of theism. It's not ... not really. Atheism, at least the truly honest ones, do not make the absolutist claim that there is no god. They make the claim that there is no evidence for a god and, therefore, there's no point in assuming one exists. If atheism was the opposite of theism, then theism would have to consider the possibility that there is no god, but it doesn't.
What atheists CAN do, however, is unilaterally reject religious gods because religion, of course, is knowable. Since religious belief is an absolute - a one bit operation of binary code (0 = belief, 1 = non-belief), atheists simply opt for non-belief. There is no such thing as "maybe" or "I don't know" when it comes to religion. Since atheists are already uncertain if ANY type of god exists, to claim that they DO know a specific God from a specific religion exists would be paradoxial to say the least.
While I do loathe the person who coined the phrase...it is a very apt one:
.. there are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know. ”
—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld
And anyone who claims otherwise is either a fool, deluded or a charlatan or just a plain old fundi theist.
Really? I admit that I don't know about a lot of things. I don't know about the origins of the universe. I don't know if there is life on other planets. I don't know what caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. I don't know what exists in other galaxies. I don't know what causes global warming or if global warming in fact, exists. I don't know what causes autism. I could go on and on.
But I've never heard anyone say they "don't know" whether Santa Claus or Superman exists.
(Neither of them have ever been proven or disproven).
Sure, you can develop some of your own beliefs, but when you admit you can't prove a whole lot (including atheism) what's wrong with that?
I know its nice to have that reassurance, but not knowing does not prevent what is to come from coming, and who really know?
I have my own beliefs, but many were developed by first realizing that I just don't know. There are something like 10 Trillion cells in my body and a similar number of stars. There is so much I don't know, and I'm okay with that.
Nothing is wrong with it. Matter of fact...if you don't ever admit that, you're a nitwit.
Heck...I know that I don't even know all there is that I don't know!!...."Rumys" infamous..."unknown unknowns".
Really? I admit that I don't know about a lot of things. I don't know about the origins of the universe. I don't know if there is life on other planets. I don't know what caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. I don't know what exists in other galaxies. I don't know what causes global warming or if global warming in fact, exists. I don't know what causes autism. I could go on and on.
I think it was more a comment on the fact that only god gets the "can't prove it wrong with absolute certainty? You're being intolerant by saying you don't believe in it" treatment. No one makes a big deal about epistemological foundations or the problem of induction when you say that Santa isn't real.
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