Atheist/Agnostic/Theist/Liberal/Centrist/Conservative - poll

[rcronk]

Just answer the poll. Feel free to elaborate in a post if you wish.

 

[Madalch]

What poll?

 

[rcronk]

Sorry - it took a minute to type in all those options. There's the poll.

 

[Madalch]

Oh, that poll.

I'm not sure where I am on conservatism/liberalism. I consider myself a Red Tory- I'm fairly left-wing, but I'm also a monarchist.

 

[NewtonTrino]

Uh, yeah you need way more political options. Left/Center/Right isn't exactly enough choices as I don't identify with any of them.

 

[rcronk]

Uh, yeah you need way more political options. Left/Center/Right isn't exactly enough choices as I don't identify with any of them.

I didn't want the poll to be longer than the thread so I was hoping people could pick the option closest to their position rather than picking what exactly describes them. So - what is your position?

ETA:I have seen the planet X poll items and I added one here but where did the planet X poll options originate - why do we have them? Is it mocking UFOs or something? Gosh, I hope I don't derail my own thread.

 

[Cain]

You're restricted to only 20 options. I'm guessing you will not find many agnostic conservatives because agnostics are confused whereas conservatives are decisive. Oh, and I suppose all us anarcho-socialists are supposed to vote liberal, huh? Well, screw that, I'm voting contrary to my own political beliefs, and I encourage others to do the same (without publicizing it). Ha, now the secret army of Cainsyians will skew your precious poll results.

 

[Esperdome]

In keeping with your desire for people to vote for their best fit, I voted centrist, but I would suspect almost no one here would fit any strict pigeon-holing criteria on the liberal-centrist-conservative part.

 

[Damien Evans]

Where was the apatheist option?

 

[rcronk]

Forgive my limited choices. I wasn't trying to pigeon-hole anyone. These are generalizations - feel free to expound in a post if needed. And there's always planet x if you want to abstain.

 

[Shoogar]

I'm just curious why no one has selected "atheist - conservative".

 

[Macoy]

There should be a choice for agnostics who don't believe in any of it.

 

[LawnOven]

nihilists? I believe thats the planet x option.

 

[gumboot]

I went with agnostic liberal.

 

[proxywar]

agnostic/centrist.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

I voted Planet X because I've decided none of the atheist options fit me. There are some things I'm slightly or very conservative on, some things I'm slightly or very liberal on and a handful of things I'm centrist on.

I'd prefer to refer to myself as an atheist issuationalist.

 

[rcronk]

If I were to start another thread where each person would be invited to share their exact political leanings, their exact a/theistic (non)beliefs, and comment on any correlations they see between their political and (a)theistic leanings, would that be better? I think that would be harder to quantify, but it would definitely let people not feel like their choice was a mismatch. Would you post in such a thread?

 

[Darth Rotor]

You're restricted to only 20 options. I'm guessing you will not find many agnostic conservatives because agnostics are confused whereas conservatives are decisive. Oh, and I suppose all us anarcho-socialists are supposed to vote liberal, huh? Well, screw that, I'm voting contrary to my own political beliefs, and I encourage others to do the same (without publicizing it). Ha, now the secret army of Cainsyians will skew your precious poll results.

*Raises clenched fist* (No s were harmed by this clenching)

Fight the power!

DR

 

[Lanzy]

OK, took your silly poll, now tell me why you want to know.

 

[volatile]

Before M7 gets here to explain this at greater length, can I point out that "agnostic" is meaningless, and it is not a magic middle ground between theism and atheism. One can be an agnostic theist or an agnostic atheist; one cannot simply be "agnostic". It is meaningless.

Except that the four categories - 'Strong' (gnostic) atheist, agnostic atheist, agnostic theist and 'true believer' (gnostic theist) - do not lie on any type of continuum. They are a combination of two very different positions: An epistemological position (gnosticism/agnosticism) and an ontological position (theism/atheism). "Agnostic" is a useful category by itself so long as one is describing an epistemological position - when it is used to describe an ontological position between 'belief' and 'non-belief' for any subject it is no longer of any use, simply because it is a nonsense statement - it is the statement ~(p v ~p), which is a logical contradiction.


I don't care who is in whose 'camp'. I don't even know what you mean by 'allowable'. If everybody in the world turned around tomorrow and said that agnosticism is a middle ground between theism and atheism I still wouldn't agree because such a statement is demonstrably wrong.

You might not think that using words that have actual meanings is important in discussion, but I do. So long as people are using 'agnosticism' as an ontological position between theism and atheism, I will be pointing out to them that it is no such thing, and that no position exists. While people are asserting that they hold a logically contradictory position, I will be pointing that out to them, and it is likely the discussion will not proceed further. This is not me being pedantic about things, this is because until people are claiming a position that is at least logically valid, it is meaningless to try and discuss the soundness of their position.

It is not the label I object to, it is the position itself. I wouldn't care if the position was described as 'fluffnostastic'. The fact that 'agnostic', a word that has a real, meaningful definition, has been hijacked with this nonsense is just another unfortunate happening - not my main issue.