Re: Why atheism beats agnosticism (Was: Re: Contacting God)

David McFadzean (david@lucifer.com)
Thu, 23 Apr 1998 16:37:38 -0600


At 02:19 PM 4/23/98 -0700, Max More wrote:

>If you have a reasonable standard of knowledge, or of rational belief, then
>you can look at the arguments and the evidence and conclude that there is
>no reason to believe in a god. That lack of belief, that a-theism, makes
>you an atheist. The agnostic, by contrast, has a standard of knowledge such
>that they may think they can never know or rationally come to a conclusion
>on the issue.

Perhaps some history can shed some light on this discussion. Agnosticism,
as originally conceived by T. H. Huxley, was more of a method (very much
like PCR) than a statement of belief (or lack thereof):
<http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/sn-huxley.html>

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Church of Virus                 http://www.lucifer.com/virus/