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1 : a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly: one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god
Since there are so many of you who follow my postings on here, you ought to know that I have said several times that the existance of God can neither be proven or disproven. Heres one example: //www.city-data.com/forum/relig...l#post18969002
Just because I choose to beleive that there is, dosnt mean that Im committed to beleiving this way. My veiws are subject to change.
I think I fit the bill, and I really dont care what you think. You know, one of the reasons why I joined this forum was to maybe find some answers and here the opinions of others on this subject, but so far all I have heard is alot of pettiness and judgemental garbage. { but yeah, you are far superior to any theist.... lol, laughable }
BTW, anyone mind telling me what ANY of this has to do with the OP????? Because the way I see it, you ALL are in clear violation of the forum rules by being off-topic, and in violation of the TOS with your vendettas and personal attacks against me.
1 : a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly: one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god
Quite! But YOU, by your own admission believe in the existence of God/gods. You are not one who is 'not committed' ...you believe in the existence of god. That makes you THEIST, not agnostic.
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...but yeah, you are far superior to any theist....
Yeah, yeah!! We know all that....but you still are not agnostic. You are theist because you believe gods exist.
BTW, anyone mind telling me what ANY of this has to do with the OP????? Because the way I see it, you ALL are in clear violation of the forum rules by being off-topic, and in violation of the TOS with your vendettas and personal attacks against me.
I agree with the narrow definition of agnosticism: That it is impossible to know, absolutely, that there is either a god(s) or not. Therefore, I consider myself an agnostic atheist, since I think the likelihood is vanishingly small, as Richard Dawkins does. I do not believe in the existence of a god or gods. I am not leaving myself an 'out' "just in case".
I have stated before that Deism doesn't bother me at all, since there is no dogma attached. (Try catma!)
Ive noticed that alot of atheist or agnostics such as myself, have been raised in a religious home or have a religios background. When you decided to be an atheist, How did you tell your religious family/freinds??? Was it hard to do so???? When and if you did openly declare your Atheism/Agnosticism, what kind of reactions were you met with???
For example, I was raised in a semi-Christian home and as ive gotten older, I would consider myself to be an agnostic. Now, not very many of my freinds and family knows this. My aunt and uncle are fundamental Christians and Ive not told them my views. Its not really because im ashamed or anything, I guess I just dont want the hastle of having to them say they will pray for me or worse, that Im going to hell.
How have other Atheists and Agnostics handled this???
I don't tell anyone IRL. My family are almost all fundamentalist Christians and I see no reason to cause them concern about what they will feel is my "eternal demise" . I use what I consider the best of my former beliefs to find common ground with them in conversations, and leave it at that.
1 : a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly: one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god
Since there are so many of you who follow my postings on here, you ought to know that I have said several times that the existance of God can neither be proven or disproven. Heres one example: //www.city-data.com/forum/relig...l#post18969002
Just because I choose to beleive that there is, dosnt mean that Im committed to beleiving this way. My veiws are subject to change.
I think I fit the bill, and I really dont care what you think. You know, one of the reasons why I joined this forum was to maybe find some answers and here the opinions of others on this subject, but so far all I have heard is alot of pettiness and judgemental garbage. { but yeah, you are far superior to any theist.... lol, laughable }
I haven't read the rest of the posts in this thread yet, but I just wanted to say I'm with you on this. I call myself atheist on the forum, just to keep it simple, but I'm definitely a constantly questoning agnostic. I don't know what is "knowable" and what is not, but until very recently "God" had always been a part of my life, and I'm quite willing to still keep a very open mind to the possibility that just because my former "certain understanding" of God is no longer tenable for me, doesn't mean no God exists. Some moments, I'm quite sure one does. Other's I'm quite sure one doesn't. And I'm learning to be comfortable with that.
I don't tell anyone IRL. My family are almost all fundamentalist Christians and I see no reason to cause them concern about what they will feel is my "eternal demise" . I use what I consider the best of my former beliefs to find common ground with them in conversations, and leave it at that.
Thanks for sticking to the REAL issue asked in the OP, and yes I agree with much of what you are saying, this is very similar to the way I handle myself around my family as well.
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haven't read the rest of the posts in this thread yet, but I just wanted to say I'm with you on this. I call myself atheist on the forum, just to keep it simple, but I'm definitely a constantly questoning agnostic. I don't know what is "knowable" and what is not, but until very recently "God" had always been a part of my life, and I'm quite willing to still keep a very open mind to the possibility that just because my former "certain understanding" of God is no longer tenable for me, doesn't mean no God exists. Some moments, I'm quite sure one does. Other's I'm quite sure one doesn't. And I'm learning to be comfortable with that.
I don't tell anyone IRL. My family are almost all fundamentalist Christians and I see no reason to cause them concern about what they will feel is my "eternal demise" . I use what I consider the best of my former beliefs to find common ground with them in conversations, and leave it at that.
I was raised Baptist, drug to church and sunday school and vacation bible school, prayer meetings, bible study and church youth groups. My mother was extremely religious, 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.
I outed myself at church shortly after becoming a teenager, very loudly and rather rudely. She wanted me to attend yet another religious event and I'd had enough. "[Expletive] this [expletive]! None of it is true, it's all [expletive] and I've had enough of it! I'm not doing it anymore!"
My younger brothers did likewise in their turn.
She got over it eventually (it was nearly 40 years ago). We don't talk about it.
She still sends cards with religious sentiment, and occasionally saying she'll pray (especially after my wife was diagnosed with cancer recently) but I don't complain about it (the religious stuff) to her. She knows how I feel, and I know that she means well.
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