Whats the difference between an Atheist and an Agnostic?

[Flamezdudes]

Originally because everyone was considererd christian in Europe, if someone lost their faith they would become an a-theist. Now it just means "non-believer in a higher power", regardless of how you got there.

Athiesm is the default position. You are born atheist. If you were never shown a bible or koran, you would remain an atheist.

-unless you're also going to call athiest's evolutionary nuts, since it essentially is just two different schools of thought-

Yes, one with a huge amount of peer reviewed evidence and logical structure. And one based on a story about talking snakes and magic apples.

No one is born an Athiest. Your born as nothing, you have no understanding of anything until someone educates you on Thiest or Athiest things.

 

[Xrysthos]

Where an atheist denies the existense of a higher power, the agnostic looks at the available facts, and seeing as there are some things that science cannot yet explain, they do not rule out the possibility of there being a higher power/God.

That would at least be my understanding of the distinction between the two. Agnostics are able to speak without religious bias, while some atheists and religious people alike would have problems doing so.

 

[Richard Eis]

-No one is born an Athiest. Your born as nothing, you have no understanding of anything until someone educates you on Thiest or Athiest things.-

A lack of belief isn't nothing?

There is no athiest "thing". It is null, void , nada, no belief. Just as you were born a non-stampcollector, you were born atheist. Or non-believer, or non-theist. They all pretty much mean the same thing now.

 

[Overlord_Dave]

Athesist says "There is no god" and a Agnostic says "There might be a god, not sure". Fairly easy.

Atheist says "There is no god" and an Agnostic says "I don't care".

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Just ask Wikipedia.
About Thor: he's just too damn awesome to be considered one of those omnipotent all-powerful bores.

 

[randomrob]

The hardcore atheist is just the parallel to the religious nut. Since both claim to know with certainty something with no evidence.

Sorry to correct you but it's no 'hard' evidence. There are long lists of circumstantial evidence for and against religion.

An atheist (like me) is someone who knows for certain in their own mind that there is no God.
An antagnostic is someone who is open to the concept of religion, but has never been convinced by it.

 

[JoshGod]

the difference is that agnostics havnt yet realised there is no god..

here comes the retaliation lol

anyway one believes in god one isnt sure. and if god came to earth and proven to be god, well many would become a thiest as there was no real evidence but this would change that problem.

come on down god i dare u lol
well
come on
smite me
all powerful my ass

aaagghh my ass
...
kidding

 

[gamefreakbsp]

Atheists are steadfast non-beleivers, and Agnostics are somewhat open to the concept of there being a "God".

 

[mobsterlobster]

If you've ever read the Discworld books, there are atheists in that world. I think they're atheists because they hate the gods, rather than not believing in them. I might be wrong though. Who knows more about the Discworld than I do?

Eh, not quite - in Discworld, being an atheist is sort of like wearing a tinfoil hat and muttering to yourself. On Discworld, the gods DO exist and CAN smite you with lightning bolts if you make them angry.

Any of the stories with the witches of Lancre can sum it up pretty well: believing in gods is pointless on the Discworld because it's exactly like believing in the kitchen table. What's the need to have faith in something that you know for a fact exists?

Haha perfect. Thanks. I remember this line from Small Gods:

"He says gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something to aim at."

It's not totally relevent, but it's quite amusing.

 

[TheDean]

Agnostics are wimps who refuse to pick a side. Even though beign agnostic means they don't believe in god anyway. They are basically wimpy atheists.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Agnostics require some sort of evidence of a higher power while Atheists worship Athe the god of nothing. Athe seeks to consume all others gods adding their power to it's own, and render the universe as nothing. Hence why they are called Athe-Theists.

All hail Athior!

 

[cobra_ky]

atheism is the lack of belief in deities, or more simply put, the absence of theism.

agnosticism is the belief that certain fundamental metaphysical questions are unanswerable.

 

[ChaosTheory3133]

Furthermore, I'll even go as far to say that there has never been a war that was waged solely because of religious reasons or that religion was even the largest reason to go to war.

Right for the most part but I can think of a few, the Crusades, the "Conflict" in Israel has some religious aspects to it, Thirty Years War, French Wars of Religion (The classic Protestant and Catholic hatred) just to name of a few. There are several examples of people who are so convinced that their god has a bigger *Happy Sunshine Fun Words underneath Here* than someone else's god that they are going to kill the other people until they accepted said god.
If you look at the history, god is mankind's leading cause of death.

You need to actually research what you talk about you know...The Crusades are probably the pentuiltimate example of a set of wars "justified" by religion but were not really about religion at all. They were about land control and a grab for wealth. The conflict with Israel is again not so much about religion as it is about beneficial gain. It's about controlling land and wealth. Again religion is often used as the means for those in power to "justify" and draw commoners into a war but it is almost never the real reason for it.

And sure there are individuals so crazy and extreme that they are willing to kill others for their religion but thats because they are INSANE AND EXTREME. I could counter your point by saying that there are people out there so crazy and extreme that they would kill others because their skin is a slightly different color. There are others so crazy and extreme they would kill others because they were born two blocks in the wrong direction from their neighborhood. There are people so crazy and extreme they would kill others because they think it's fun. Religion isn't the common factor here, it's the being crazy part.

Certainly you must agree that in some sense religion is a factor, be it catalyst or cause. While a war may be started BY economic factors and shadowy under dealings like you describe. The way it is on going (fueled) is deeply rooted by a contrast of a belief system in this case. And really unless you were alive at that time you cannot argue that one factor was larger than any other. All I'm trying to argue its a matter of your own perspective about your belief in the way wars start. While you say its economics I say its a series of misunderstandings in the belief systems of two sides that kept it fueled. I emphasize what people think, you emphasize the greed within people. Either way neither of us is more wrong than the other and in fact I do agree with you to an extent.
Crazy isn't a rational argument so I won't address that. I just want you to keep an open mind to other ideas which you only proved that is not something you'll consider despite posting it FOR discussion.

 

[Sevre]

Atheists don't have all the answers but our lack of faith in God stems from our humanism and our strive to find more answers, granted some atheists are douchebags who just attack religious nuts but some of us have spent enough time thinking about life hard enough to conclude there is no god.

 

[randomrob]

The hardcore atheist is just the parallel to the religious nut. Since both claim to know with certainty something with no evidence.

Sorry to correct you but it's no 'hard' evidence. There are long lists of circumstantial evidence for and against religion.

An atheist (like me) is someone who knows for certain in their own mind that there is no God.
An antagnostic is someone who is open to the concept of religion, but has never been convinced by it.

so your basically saying that your close-minded.

Close-minded towards the concept of a god. yes. Unless you can prove me wrong?

 

[Jimmyjames]

what you wrote

Ummm.... methinks what you said didn't have anything to do with what I said.

 

[Cliff_m85]

Athesist says "There is no god" and a Agnostic says "There might be a god, not sure". Fairly easy.

Wrong.

Atheism answers a question on belief.
Agnosticism answers a question based on knowledge.


Do you believe that there is a god? Yes or No are the only answers.
Does a god exist? That's where it's not a question of belief but of fact. Agnosticism is the only rational answer to that.