I feel like somewhere along the line my definitions and the common ones diverged, and I'm not sure who's right, but... for me, an atheist is someone who KNOWS there is no Creative Power (God, etc.) while an agnostic is someone who has no conclusive evidence. I wish there were a ready label to distinguish what seem to really be three types of belief:
-- God definitely doesn't exist, and no amount of proof will sway me from that belief -- The universe can be explained without God, therefore I don't believe in God; if someone manages to develop compelling arguments, I'd change my mind -- I've never gotten compelling argumentation for the existence of God, but I also accept that there's no current proof for the absence of God; therefore, I'll exclude consideration of his being from my life, pending compelling arguments
The first view is clearly atheist. The last is clearly agnostic. It's the middle one that I'm inclined to call agnostic, but which seems to be called atheist more often than agnostic (and which seems to be your position, yes?).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-02-28 05:42 pm (UTC)-- God definitely doesn't exist, and no amount of proof will sway me from that belief
-- The universe can be explained without God, therefore I don't believe in God; if someone manages to develop compelling arguments, I'd change my mind
-- I've never gotten compelling argumentation for the existence of God, but I also accept that there's no current proof for the absence of God; therefore, I'll exclude consideration of his being from my life, pending compelling arguments
The first view is clearly atheist. The last is clearly agnostic. It's the middle one that I'm inclined to call agnostic, but which seems to be called atheist more often than agnostic (and which seems to be your position, yes?).