Hello...I'm one of those dreaded agnostics.

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Sheldon's picture
That;s because despite

That's because despite several people trying their best to explain this simple concept you remain unable to grasp what it means.

I don't believe any deities are real because no one has ever demonstrated any objective evidence for them, is a statement about belief. Whereas deities don't exist is a claim about knowledge.

Now one more time for you, disbelieving a claim is not the same as making a contrary claim. So if a claim is unfalsifiable then it's rational to disbelieve it but it's not rationalise to make a contrary claim.

Here's my unfalsifiable hypothetical again, see if you can see why it's ok for you disbelieve it but irrational for you to claim it is untrue, "if I claimed I flew to the moon last night using magic, would you believe me? Yet there is no way to falsify the claim as it is in fact unfalsifiable."

If that is too difficult try Mohammed flying to to heaven on a winged horse. I don't believe that either because it has not met it's burden of proof, there's that phrase again, and yet I can't disprove it anymore than I can disprove someone called Jesus orchestrated his own crucifixion and then resurrected himself days later, because they are unfalsifiable claims.

Now one last time for you

...so you can't falsify such claims **EVEN IF THEY ARE FALSE...geddit? So despite it being rational to disbelieve them why would you make a claim they are false?

Disbelief is not the same as making a contrary claim, and my atheism is disbelief of a claim.

Why are so many theists unable to grasp this simple premise.

LogicFTW's picture
@Sheldon

@Sheldon
I feel like your post helped me realize something.

Perhaps at the core of every theist personal belief system where: the theist actually thinks about and examines their own religion. Is these theist have a shifted sense of how the burden of evidence works, in respect to their religion. (They use the proper sense of burden of evidence in almost everything else in their life, or they would be locked up at the local crazy house as a danger to themselves and others or already dead.)

Reminds me of the comedian joke that I will probably mangle in the retelling here:

"If you went to the government saying an invisible undetectable man whispers in your ear telling you how to live your life and what to do. They would lock you up and throw away the key.

But if you show up with 20 or more people all saying roughly the same thing, the government will give you a bunch of giant tax breaks to start an organization, and protect you with powerful laws."

CyberLN's picture
Hi Frank. Welcome.

Hi Frank. Welcome.

You can call me whatever you like. In the end, it doesn’t matter what you call me (or yourself). What matters is in this case, is what you think.

I am frequently referred to as atheist since I do not believe in gods. I am also frequently called agnostic as I don’t claim to know if any of them exists. Those two things fit.

So my suggestion in all the labeling bro ha ha is call yourself whatever you like and concatenate it with your own definition.

Frank Apisa's picture
Thank you, Cyber. That is

Thank you, Cyber. That is pretty much what I do. I try to get away from the label "agnostic" and just use my particular take on the question. But at times, people refuse to accept that.

Here is my position once again. I acknowledge it is "agnostic" in nature, but there are agnostics who would feel uncomfortable with it.

I do not know if gods exist or not;
I see no reason to suspect gods CANNOT EXIST...that the existence of gods is impossible;
I see no reason to suspect that gods MUST EXIST...that gods are needed to explain existence;
I do not see enough unambiguous evidence upon which to base a meaningful guess in either direction...

...so I don't.

Old man shouts at clouds's picture
@ Frank

@ Frank

Just stop at "I do not know if gods exist or not" That'll do for everyday wear. Overthinking always causes angst and problems with others.

Cognostic's picture
You need to educate yourself

You need to educate yourself on the Null Hypothesis and what it means.

Nyarlathotep's picture
Cognostic - You need to

Cognostic - You need to educate yourself on the Null Hypothesis and what it means.

1000 agrees

An interesting question would be is there a relationship between fucking up the null hypothesis and being a credulous person? I would guess so.

ʝօɦռ 6IX ɮʀɛɛʐʏ's picture
You do realize the null

You do realize the null hypothesis was brought up by Cognostic, and not Frank Apisa don't you? That places your comment into the straw man category.

If a strong correlation exists between being a credulous person and understanding the null hypothesis, then my prediction would be that you don't understand the null hypothesis, given that you've ruined your credibility by straw manning Frank.

Nyarlathotep's picture
I wasn't speaking about Frank

@Breezy
I wasn't speaking about Frank fucking up the null hypothesis; I was talking about you.

ʝօɦռ 6IX ɮʀɛɛʐʏ's picture
Obviously. How do you think

Obviously. How do you think you ended up straw manning Frank?

By being overly credulous and believing Cog was talking about who you were talking about.

Nyarlathotep's picture
Breezy - By being overly

Breezy - By being overly credulous and believing Cog was talking about who you were talking about.

I at no point believed that; seems your ESP/mind reading needs work.

ʝօɦռ 6IX ɮʀɛɛʐʏ's picture
So you responded to Cog, in

So you responded to Cog, in reference to me, while aware that he was referencing Frank, without any indication, because you knew, that he knew who you were talking about?

Perhaps my mind reading does need some work, because that is quiet impressive.

Nyarlathotep's picture
Breezy - So you responded to

Breezy - So you responded to Cog, in reference to me, while aware that he was referencing Frank...

Yep, that is what I did. Cognostic and Sheldon didn't seem to have any trouble processing it; only you seemed to. I wonder why.

Sheldon's picture
Cognostic - You need to

Cognostic - You need to educate yourself on the Null Hypothesis and what it means.

1000 agrees

An interesting question would be is there a relationship between fucking up the null hypothesis and being a credulous person? I would guess so.
---------------------------------------

Make that a 1000 and 1.

Sheldon's picture
He does, but this is someone

He does, but this is someone who thinks he knows better than science about what is scientific fact, who knows better than the principles of logic about what is fallacious, and who thinks he knows better than the major dictionaries about how a word should be defined. I'm amazed he can move around with an ego that massive, and as is so often the case he is quite simply wrong here again, bless him.

ʝօɦռ 6IX ɮʀɛɛʐʏ's picture
I find that you've imbued me

I find that you've imbued me with these attributes yourself. Perhaps it isn't that I know more in these areas than their respective experts, it just seems I know more in them than you.

Those who know can teach, those who don't attack. So far you tend to side with the latter.

Sheldon's picture
You have claimed to have

You have claimed to have valid objections to evolution despite the entire scientific world all agreeing it is a scientific fact established beyond any reasonable doubt, so bragging you know more about it than me is a ludicrously hilarious straw man. I am happy to accept scientific fact, and it is you who is denying it, so how superior can your knowledge be? If you know so much about evolution why are you in opposition to the entire scientific world? You think you know better than them quite obviously, why else would make such a bafflingly arrogant claim. Have I ever claimed to know what the scientific world does not?
------------------------------------------------

"Those who know can teach, those who don't attack. So far you tend to side with the latter."

Nice ad hominem attack, you really are irony impaired aren't you.

Nyarlathotep's picture
Breezy - Those who know can

Breezy - Those who know can teach...

We've tried to teach you time and time again. In fact I feel very foolish for wasting all that time the other day on you.

ZeffD's picture
Frank: "I have no problem

Frank: "I have no problem with atheists deciding how they want to define atheism"
Surely atheism means what the dictionary says it means..
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheism
or what theologians decide it means. What non-believers in a religious theology think doesn't matter. Theology is just mythology taken too seriously anyway. That is why I think non-believers shouldn't use terms like atheist or apostate. We don't believe in unicorns and are quite happy to just be people who don't believe those exist. That is exactly how I feel about all gods currently defined...
http://www.godchecker.com/
including Abrahamic ones.

People label me as they wish, it's wasted time.

Frank Apisa's picture
I agree, Zeff. Your comment,

I agree, Zeff. Your comment, "People label me as they wish, it's wasted time." is right on.

That is why I state my position as clearly as I can...and pay as little attention as possible to the labels.

Frank Apisa's picture
Ahhh...I have no idea of how

Ahhh...I have no idea of how this forum works.

Posts just seem to show up wherever they want...there does not seem to be a linear progression. I am unable to keep up.

Where do I find an explanation of how posts are made...and entered?

In the meantime, I apologize to those people who have responded...and to whom I have not offered a response. I just went through the entire thread and discovered that posts are all over the place...and I do not understand how they get there. They were not there earlier.

If anyone can help me...I'd appreciate it.

Old man shouts at clouds's picture
@ Frank

@ Frank

"If anyone can help me...I'd appreciate it."

The site is not linear.

When replying to a post hit the reply button and us the @theirname and the subject in quotation marks. These will appear in time order under the post to which you are replying.

algebe's picture
@Frank Apisa

@Frank Apisa

If you click "reply" at the end of someone's post, your reply will appear mid-list directly under that person's post as part of a sub-thread. If you enter your reply in the "Add new comment" box at the bottom of the page, it will appear at the end of the thread. The newest posts appear last. It's not ideal. Reply posts tend to get out of order and difficult to find.

I generally name the person I'm replying to with an @ mark.
Check out Nyarlahotep's forum tips here.
http://www.atheistrepublic.com/forums/site-support/useful-forum-tips

And some formatting information here.
http://www.atheistrepublic.com/filter/tips

Sheldon's picture
I feel your pain, sadly I

I feel your pain, sadly I have no answers. It seems to insert posts into the middle of the threads based on which post you're replying to. I too find it very confusing and miss a lot of responses which I find accidentally weeks later.

If any thinks they can help it would be great of the responses just referenced a post number displayed in each post but was placed at the end of the thread in chronological order.

Cognostic's picture
He he he he ....

He he he he .... @Nyarlathotep - You said it before I could get to it. I have never seen anyone write so much and say so little as Mr. B. You are 1000% correct in FORMING THE QUESTION " Is there a relationship between fucking up the null hypothesis and being a credulous person?" I would guess so TOO. HEY BREEZY - Notice the word "guess." Notice that the original poster is never mentioned.

NOT EVEN A FRIGGING HYPOTHESIS YET and already your legitimate question, NOT ASSERTION, is being attacked.

Personally, I can not see how a serious lack of understanding or (fucking up the null hypothesis) can lead to not being a credulous person.

ʝօɦռ 6IX ɮʀɛɛʐʏ's picture
Notice that the original

Notice that the original poster is never mentioned.

Unless you were talking to yourself for some reason, you were speaking to Frank.

Cognostic's picture
https://www.youtube.com/watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2wLWFsiGvo

There is no such thing as an "Agnostic" position on the question of whether or not a God exists.

mickron88's picture
this always happen when

this always happen when breezy wheezy speaks his mind...

unbelievable...really one of a kind...

they really love you johnny, that's why they hate you on how you think..
smart-maybe arrogant-most likely delusional- yes please...

ʝօɦռ 6IX ɮʀɛɛʐʏ's picture
My haters will always be my

Your haters will always be your closest readers. Nothing motivates people to scrutinize your every word, than the desire to see you be wrong. I love the challenge of having multiple people parse apart every line I write, from every possible front.

Frank Apisa's picture
Thanks to everyone who

Thanks to everyone who responded to my "hello" thread. Not often I post a hello thread to a new forum...and get five pages of comments.

Anyway...this format is simply not for me. I'm going to search for an atheist site where there is linear posting. This is way too confusing for my old mind.

Agnostics and atheists should be able to get along better than I see happening here. We certainly should not be enemies. Best of luck to all of you.

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