ManUtdFan said:
Beliefs and knowledge, at least in respect of religion, are essentially the same thing. Jews/christians for instance believe that knowledge of their god comes from reading the bible. But they can only know this to be true if they believe it - both to the same degree. One cannot know the essence of God without reading the bible and believing it to be true. So facts do play their part. e.g. They believe it is a fact that God/Moses parted the Red Sea. Therefore they know it to be true. Non-believers don't recognise this as fact so for them it isn't knowledge either. True theists aren't agnostic, because there can be no room for doubt. Similarly, true atheists aren't actually agnostic, why? because they too leave no room for doubt. They are certain of their belief that no god or gods exist. As I explained earlier, Richard Dawkins is 90% certain there is no God and 10% unsure. There is a distinction between agnosticism and atheism, and both can be on the same spectrum. The video wrongly illustrated this point. The extent to which someone lacks theism or atheism viewpoints is the extent to which they're agnostic. |
Oh and there is a clear distinction between belief and knowledge. Knowledge is like a further extreme of belief. You are right that knowing something requires you to believe something. But when someone believes something, that doesn't mean they know it, or think they know it. This is where agnostic atheists and agnostic Theists come in. They believe or don't believe in a deity, but they acknowledge that they don't know. I'm not sure where you're getting your definition of "true atheists" or "true atheists" because plenty of the ones I know acknowledge that they don't know for sure - they just have their beliefs, which they know could be false.
