Monday, August 14, 2006

On the Other Hand

Of course, we might all just be spawned from pods...



2 comments:

The Editor said...

Dan, you old reprobate, you never came back to my blog to read my reply, so I've decided to post it here:

Dangbh, I probably have committed some logical fallacies. I regularly do. I am human. I do not speak/think infallably. I just try to tell it how it is for me at a particular time. And some time later it might be different for me.

Now, about your comment: "I started out not believing in a god" is fine until one is presented with the question "Is there a god?" The moment you try to resolve this question, I assert that there are only three ways you can jump:

[1] Yes, there is a god. [Theist]
[2] No, there is no god [Atheist]
[3] Don't know. Uncommitted. Keeping an open mind.[Agnostic]

Since it is fair to assume that life has presented you with the question "Is there a god?", and given your comment, I will assume that you fit one of the following:

[1] you are actually an agnostic, or

[2] you are an atheist in denial of his belief that there is no god, or

[3] you, for some weird reason, run a mile from actually addressing this question and resolving it in your own mind.

I've found that theists have no porblem saying they believe there is a god.

I've found agnostics have no problem in saying that they don't know, that they are uncommitted, or that their mind is still open on that subject of god.

But only few atheists admit to having a belief there is no god. The vast majority of atheists quibble, obfuscate, dissemble or deny that they believe there is no god. They do ANYTHING to avoid admitting that they believe there is no god. That is why I say they are intellectually dishonest. The moment they get honest about it, they either claim to be an agnostic or they freely admit to believing there is no god. It really is as simple as that, and the rest is mere quibbling. Or the outright refusal to tell the truth about one's beliefs. I can see it no other way.

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You can always reply here

Dan GBH said...

Highly flattered to be described as a reprobate, I've replied to this - it's over at Gerry's blog, where he says "reply here." I'll work out how to link from a comment like that soon...