Eagle367 said:
JWeinCom said:
Atheism is what you believe about a god. Atheism means I don't believe this claim. Theism means you believe it.
Agnostic or gnostic refers to what you know or rather claim to know. So a gnostic atheist would be someone who claims "I know god does not exist". An gnostic theist would say "I know god exists". An agnostic atheist would say "I don't believe a god exists but I don't know that for a fact." And an agnostic theist would say "I believe a god exists, but I can't prove it."
That's how I'm using the terms, and how most atheists use it. I'm not going to argue over them, cause I find that boring, but just wanted to make sure we're on the same page. I don't mind being labeled as an agnostic, because that is technically accurate, but I tend to identify as an atheist, because I think my beliefs are closer to what most people think of when they think of atheism.
Back to the point, I don't know why I have to decide anything about the origins of the universe to live my life. It'd be cool to know, but however it began, I can observe the world around me that exists now, and decide how to live my life based on the current state of the universe. I can live just fine without knowing, or pretending to know, the origins of the universe.
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Well to me that simply means you live your life as if God doesn't exist and if He does, then He doesn't interfere with humankind. You are making that choice whether you want to or not. Not choosing is a choice in itself. If you choose to be not 100% about God but still follow your life as if you're Muslim or Christian or Hindu or Jew, that's still a choice. So this choice affects your daily life whether you want it to or not
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I'm not making a choice.
I don't choose what to believe. I evaluate the evidence I see, and I make a decision. For example, I believe that Australia exists. I've never been there to confirm it, but there is an abundance of evidence. Would you say I'm choosing to believe in Australia? On the contrary, I don't believe Narnia exists. Again, would this be a choice, or just an evaluation?
Nobody has yet presented evidence to me that suggests a god is interfering with the world, so I don't believe in it. I can't choose to believe even if I tried really hard. At best, I could pretend to believe. I could choose to follow a religion despite not believing in it, but that would be kind of bizarre wouldn't it?
