Comments on: Atheist, not agnostic. Honestly.

By: Scavella

Scavella — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:01:49 +0000

To call myself an agnostic now would feel like a denial of a process, which was, for me, real and important. I can see the temptation; ‘agnostic’ is a label I can live with, and it’s softer and less confrontational than ‘atheist’. But in the end, for me, it’s calling myself agnostic which feels like the less honest option.

I must admit that I rarely think of atheism as the outcome of a process, which sounds pretty stupid to me now that I think about it, but rather as a fait accompli. I tend to assume that most intelletuals with whom I engage are athiest or agnostic, and that they start from a default position of “there is no god/no out there/no other”. For some reason I rarely think of atheism as the end product of something.

Fair enough, Harry. I agree with you — in your case, atheism is the honest choice.

Cheers.

By: Harry

Harry — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:41:49 +0000

“The question of the existence or nonexistence of a demiurge has always struck me as rather peripheral to the core concerns of religion, which have to do with ethics and morality.”

I’ve always felt it was rather a striking piece of symbolism that the first four of the ten commandments are about God’s pre-eminence and how to worship him, and it’s only then that they move onto questions of morality. And similarly there’s the centrality of the Muslim testament of faith: there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet. Nothing about morality or ethics there.

Cheap jibes at religion aside, I guess I feel that ethics and morality are core concerns of all humanity, whether expressed through religion, philosophy, politics, literature or just daily life.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:27:24 +0000

I call myself an agnostic because a recognition of the limits of knowledge, and the consequent need for humility, are so central to my belief system. The question of the existence or nonexistence of a demiurge has always struck me as rather peripheral to the core concerns of religion, which have to do with ethics and morality. I should think it incumbent on a Christian to act as if God and heaven do not exist, and do good anyway. Didn’t Jesus command his followers to give up all they had?