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loinburger
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Sweet Sauce Jones
Jul 1999
time: 00:22
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quote:
Originally posted by Boris Godunov
1) The "misconceptions" are what the vast majority of people believe to be the case, and |
I agree that the vast majority on Apolyton use the terms as you and others have, but I'm used to seeing the less ambiguous terms "weak atheist" and "strong atheist" act as the delimiters.
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2) Even trusted sources, like my Webster's, define the terms by what you deem "erroneously," |
How does it define the terms? My dictionary is pretty ambiguous on the term "atheist" (as it ought to be, since alone it's a very broad term), but is pretty delimiting on the term "agnostic:" "One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God." So it only uses the definition of Strong agnosticism, but that's the most common useage of the term anyway (since Weak agnosticism is so broad as to be almost useless).
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Then how is it anyone's fault for applying those terms to their most common usage, the one most people will understand right away (without having to do cartwheels of explanation)? |
It isn't necessarily anybody's fault.
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More importantly, why does that provoke your launching attacks on someone like me, who uses the most common definitions? |
I hardly think that I was attacking you, and I certainly didn't intend for you to think that I was. I only wanted to find out (and still only want to find out) whether there's a distinction between the worldviews of agnostics and weak atheists, whether there's the need for another term (i.e. whether it's possible to believe and disbelieve something at the same time), etc.
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23-09-2002 20:14
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