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Agnostic? Is it I don't know? Or I don't care?

MinnesotaBrant

Philosopher
MinnesotaBrant
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Messages
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I was talking to a young mentally challenged guy tuesday and he blurted out the he was a atheist. I asked him well how did that tree get there. He stated "I don't know and I don't care." Is he really atheist or is he more agnostic> Also, which one is likely to get him more chicks? There are plenty of cute chicks out there identifying themselves as atheists but only the old guys call themselves agnostic on youtube. They call me a deist alot in response to my comments on youtube. Are there any cute deists out there? Also have scientists figured out which came first the chicken or the egg?
 
wow this posting died quick. Let me think of something witty. Christians are all psychotic! They believe in a living zombie! Not all of them for sure there being more different christian beliefs out there then there are words in the bible. For me I believe in Christ. I am just not too impressed with him. That makes me a Christian I guess. bleh. This is off topic but I am trying to save the topic by any means necessary!
 
"I don't know" makes him agnostic. "I don't care" makes him... not care. It's not part of whether someone is agnostic or atheist. In fact, atheist means something different--that he doesn't think there is a god. That's different from whether he claims to know.

You can have an agnostic who thinks about the idea of God a lot and wonders about it without coming up with any answers. You can also have an agnostic who decides it's not worth thinking about.

"How did that tree get there?" as an argument doesn't hold up well--because it assumes there can be only one answer. The whole point of wondering if there is a supreme being is to question whether something has to be created on purpose to exist. "Yes it does" isn't really a meaningful response to that.
 
An atheist is someone who doesn't believe in god/s. That they don't know how a tree arrived at it's present location doesn't revoke their membership to the atheist club.
 
MNBrant said:
I was talking to a young mentally challenged guy tuesday and he blurted out the he was a atheist. I asked him well how did that tree get there. He stated "I don't know and I don't care." Is he really atheist or is he more agnostic> Also, which one is likely to get him more chicks? There are plenty of cute chicks out there identifying themselves as atheists but only the old guys call themselves agnostic on youtube. They call me a deist alot in response to my comments on youtube. Are there any cute deists out there? Also have scientists figured out which came first the chicken or the egg?
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I don't care. :D
 
gnome said:
"I don't know" makes him agnostic. "I don't care" makes him... not care. It's not part of whether someone is agnostic or atheist. In fact, atheist means something different--that he doesn't think there is a god. That's different from whether he claims to know.

You can have an agnostic who thinks about the idea of God a lot and wonders about it without coming up with any answers. You can also have an agnostic who decides it's not worth thinking about.

"How did that tree get there?" as an argument doesn't hold up well--because it assumes there can be only one answer. The whole point of wondering if there is a supreme being is to question whether something has to be created on purpose to exist. "Yes it does" isn't really a meaningful response to that.
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I don't care fits nicely with apatheism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism
 
MNBrant said:
I was talking to a young mentally challenged guy tuesday and he blurted out the he was a atheist. I asked him well how did that tree get there. He stated "I don't know and I don't care." Is he really atheist or is he more agnostic> Also, which one is likely to get him more chicks? There are plenty of cute chicks out there identifying themselves as atheists but only the old guys call themselves agnostic on youtube. They call me a deist alot in response to my comments on youtube. Are there any cute deists out there? Also have scientists figured out which came first the chicken or the egg?
Click to expand...

If he doesn't believe in any gods, he's an atheist. I thought the "I don't know and I don't care" was in response to your question about his journey toward atheism. He may very well be agnostic and apathetic, along with being an atheist.

As for the rest, I hear the internet has dating sites and porn. Eggs have been around longer than chickens.
 
If you don't believe in a god, you're an atheist.
If you do believe in a god, you're a theist.
If in either case you say you can't be sure, you're also an agnostic.
If in either case you say you can be (and are) sure, you're also a gnostic.

Given that most people with a skeptical bent know you can't be completely sure about anything, I'd imagine just about all of them are agnostics in addition to whatever else they are.
 
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MNBrant said:
I was talking to a young mentally challenged guy tuesday and he blurted out the he was a atheist. I asked him well how did that tree get there. He stated "I don't know and I don't care." Is he really atheist or is he more agnostic> Also, which one is likely to get him more chicks? There are plenty of cute chicks out there identifying themselves as atheists but only the old guys call themselves agnostic on youtube. They call me a deist alot in response to my comments on youtube. Are there any cute deists out there? Also have scientists figured out which came first the chicken or the egg?
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I've noticed that most people who are quick to label you an atheist or a deist usually confuse two things: belief and knowledge. Agnostics don't KNOW, atheists don't BELIEVE.

I call myself a militant agnostic: "I don't know and neither do you." Lots of people get confused and frustrated when they ask me what I believe, since I simply MUST know what I believe. I tell them I haven't decided yet. Jury's still out on that one...

Agnostics don't usually have a problem with that perspective... most atheists and religious people can't stand it. :D

[edited to add] ....oh, and the chicken came first. Because before it hatched, it was a dinosaur egg, not a chicken egg.
 
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chicken and egg, I think, depends on how you think about the terms. Assuming evolution, the first chicken must have been the offspring of a "pre-chicken," which would have been oviparous, therefore an egg came first. But was that egg properly speaking a chicken egg or a proto-chicken egg gone wrong? If the latter, then the first chicken egg was laid by a chicken, and therefore the chicken came first.
 
bruto said:
But was that egg properly speaking a chicken egg or a proto-chicken egg gone wrong? If the latter, then the first chicken egg was laid by a chicken, and therefore the chicken came first.
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Totally what I just said. :p
 
MikeSun5 said:
I've noticed that most people who are quick to label you an atheist or a deist usually confuse two things: belief and knowledge. Agnostics don't KNOW, atheists don't BELIEVE.

I call myself a militant agnostic: "I don't know and neither do you." Lots of people get confused and frustrated when they ask me what I believe, since I simply MUST know what I believe. I tell them I haven't decided yet. Jury's still out on that one...

Agnostics don't usually have a problem with that perspective... most atheists and religious people can't stand it. :D

[edited to add] ....oh, and the chicken came first. Because before it hatched, it was a dinosaur egg, not a chicken egg.
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It's not that we can't stand it, you're simply abusing the word.

If you don't believe a god exists, you're an atheist.

That's what the word means.

If you have no idea whether or not a god exists, you obviously don't believe in one at the moment.
 
MNBrant said:
I was talking to a young mentally challenged guy tuesday and he blurted out the he was a atheist. I asked him well how did that tree get there. He stated "I don't know and I don't care." Is he really atheist or is he more agnostic> Also, which one is likely to get him more chicks? There are plenty of cute chicks out there identifying themselves as atheists but only the old guys call themselves agnostic on youtube. They call me a deist alot in response to my comments on youtube. Are there any cute deists out there? Also have scientists figured out which came first the chicken or the egg?
Click to expand...

ah i see, you was looking for a gardener, not an agnostic.

 
MNBrant said:
I was talking to a young mentally challenged guy tuesday and he blurted out the he was a atheist. I asked him well how did that tree get there. He stated "I don't know and I don't care." Is he really atheist or is he more agnostic> Also, which one is likely to get him more chicks? There are plenty of cute chicks out there identifying themselves as atheists but only the old guys call themselves agnostic on youtube. They call me a deist alot in response to my comments on youtube. Are there any cute deists out there? Also have scientists figured out which came first the chicken or the egg?
Click to expand...

Do you just ask questions or do you read the answer?

That tree got there because it grew there, so I suppose every moment of every day, in every cell and every metabolic reaction GOD sat there and moved the molecules around? One silly statement deserves another.

You obviously don't know and just made up a reason to care either. Yo have not shown that GOD was involved in any aspect of the trees growth, contingent history, past development of tree, now have you?

Atheism vs. agnosticism, by survey of Youtube videos? Silly.

The egg.
 
MNBrant said:
wow this posting died quick. Let me think of something witty. Christians are all psychotic! They believe in a living zombie! Not all of them for sure there being more different christian beliefs out there then there are words in the bible. For me I believe in Christ. I am just not too impressed with him. That makes me a Christian I guess. bleh. This is off topic but I am trying to save the topic by any means necessary!
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You wait four minutes before acting silly ?

Can you look up the phrases false dichotomy, impatience, strawman fallacy, and overgeneralization?
 
As well, the term "agnostic" currently has as many definitions as there are folks to utter them.
I prefer the more classic use... An agnostic is one who maintains that we cannot know.

That we simply are not up to the task.
 
quixotecoyote said:
It's not that we can't stand it, you're simply abusing the word.
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Indeed. My insistence that MikeSun5 is an atheist comes not out of some desire to fill the atheist ranks but out of a desire to make people use words properly. I don't see why it's wrong to get a bit annoyed about the strawman view of atheism and want people to use the bloody word properly.
 
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