I would think that education leads to agnosticism and not atheism. I don't think any other position is all that defensible in terms of pure logic.
Nah, I won't argue Occam's Razor. I'll argue labels and perspective instead. Hope you're not too disappointed. <g>
There's been some discussion on the thread (or reluctance to discuss) about characterizing liberals. I see grouping and categorizing and defining and labeling as essential analytical techniques for processing and sharing ideas.
Atheist is not a label I choose for myself. To me it has too much of an in-your-face connotation. I use secular or non-religious when I describe myself, but when the discussion is about atheists, I don't feel a need to sidetrack the discussion to put too fine a point on the use of labels. Atheist is close enough for me to accept when discussing the broad spectrum of religious perspectives.
I don't assert that there is no god so by your definition I'm not an atheist. That study I was looking at late last night used the labels, hard core and soft core, to subcategorize atheists. Their soft-core atheist label would cover me. Like I said, I prefer "secular" but "atheist" will do in a pinch.
By your definition I'd be an agnostic, but that label doesn't feel right to me. It conveys to me that the person wearing the label is actively pondering whether or not there is a god. I see that label used by those who are specifically pondering the existence of the Christian god or trinity. I dismiss that out of hand. It boggles my mind how many apparently intelligent and educated people, in this day and age, can buy into those myths enough to design their lives around them. Whether or not there's a divine force type of god or not, I don't know. And it really doesn't matter. Whether there is or there isn't is not going to change the way I live my life one iota.
You or I can debate the fine distinctions between agnosticism and atheism. The fine distinctions matter to us because we're in that ballpark. From the perspective of a fundamentalist Christian, our distinctions are mushy at best. It's just like from my perspective as a secular/atheist, their practices are virtually indistinguishable from voodoo or astrology.
Karen
P.S. Thanks for educating me on the fruity nature of the cucumber. I won't mis-categorize it any more. |
