Are you atheist or agnostic? Why not be both?

[4th]

On the one hand, I take the philosophical position the absence of evidence is indeed evidence of absence.
So I'm an atheist.

But while that evidence is sufficient for plausible inference it is not absolute proof.
So I'm an agnostic.

I fully admit I cannot prove that no god exists, but I can to a pretty good job of refutation for the flavors of almighty that believers actually believe in.

But if I need to pick a label, I'll say I'm an atheist.

[multigraincracker]

1. Democratic Secular Humanist, here.

I put humans above Gods.

[multigraincracker]

4. I have no control over the cards I'm dealt.

I do have control over how I play those cards.

[The Madcap]

29. At least

You still have the cards...

There are many out there who would like to force your choice.

[4th]

10. Humans above Gods?

The most important instance of things that exist above things that do not exist.

[defacto7]

11. I put animals above humans

above peanut butter above gods. What do you call that?

[Skittles]

2. I know it is all a bunch of nonsense

but since I don't have the answers I leave it at agnostic

[MMBeilis]

3. Twelve. The number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin. Less if they're cherubs. If you say....

.....that's wrong, I'll ask you to "prove it'. And you can try to prove a negative, without much success, just like the atheists.

[Eko]

13. I dont have to say that's wrong. I have to just say "prove it".

The onus is on you to prove your statement otherwise its just as valid as me saying I have a unicorn in my back pocket.

[dgauss]

5. I'd like to give evolution another billion years and see whatever might exist at that point

comes up with. I bet it would make our big questions seem pretty small, to understate it a bit...

[doc03]

6. I want to beleive but how can I beleive in

a god when the people worshiping him are the worst sinners. I don't understand how there are people way smarter than me that beleive. It is like Trump, how can people claim to be Christians and support Trump, a man that is pure evil?

[Borogove]

7. I've decided to start calling myself an absurdist.

I think it best describes my view of the world, particularly after last Tuesday.

[viva la]

8. What's the term for....

"I don't care."

I mean, I don't even care enough to not believe.

[sorcrow]

21. An apathist?

Then there was the apathetic agnostic. She didn't know and she didn't care.

Regards,
Sorghum Crow

[viva la]

22. That's great

"I'm an an apathist. It's the opposite of zealot."

[defacto7]

9. I think the term is agnostic atheist anyway.

Hard atheism is illogical. I read a book on an unrelated subject written by a professor at Oxford who used the term "unknowable other" to fill the gap in the philosophical equation that forbids the use of an absolute for the existence or nonexistence of a deity. I just say I'm atheist. It's easier.

[wysimdnwyg]

12. This follows my understanding of the terms

Atheist: someone who does not believe there is a “god”.
Agnostic: someone whose position is that we don’t, and likely cannot, know if there is a “god”

As only someone who has had specific, in-person, firsthand experience (despite what many, many people would claim, the number of people who fit this description is likely zero), would actually know, we’re ALL agnostic.

As an overly logical/rational person, I consider myself to be atheist. As someone intelligent enough to recognize that I cannot prove anything, I am also agnostic.

[Eko]

14. Atheist is really the absence of belief in deities

I don't have to prove something doesn't exist to not believe in it. That is absurd. I dont have to prove that the tooth fairy doesn't exist, that Santa doesn't exist, that Bugs Bunny doesn't exist, that The Great Spaghetti Monster doesn't exist, that Zeus doesn't exist. I don't have to do any of that and yet they are not real are they?

[wcmagumba]

15. But, but, but, someone ate my goshdarned cookies last year and spilled the milk too...

[Eko]

16. They were good cookies

And I didnt spill the milk! Cup had a small hole in it.

[Martin Eden]

17. Spot-on. That's why I consider myself agnostic

My existential question has always been:

How is there anything? If our universe started with the Big Bang, where did all that mass and energy come from in the first place?

Humans do not have the perception and intellect to prove an answer to that question.

"God" has always been the easy answer, and religions provide reassurance of eternal life to mortals.

Of one thing I am fairly certain:
Man created God in man's own image. In a universe this vast, we nevertheless anthropomorphize.

The disdain various organized reliigions have earned shed no light on the existential question.

[TwilightZone]

18. I'm an apatheist.

I'm indifferent to whether or not a god or gods exist or don't exist.

To take it a little further, I don't care if there's a god or not, and religion doesn't impact my life in any way (unless I have to attend a wedding/funeral/etc., then I don't have much choice - I'm still indifferent to the religious aspects as long as they're not overt), but I also don't really care if anyone else believes there is, as long as they don't try to force those opinions on me or others, and those opinions do not impact the lives of others.

Some people need to believe in something, for various reasons, which is fine as long as that's as far as it goes. Of course, that's almost never how far it goes.

[Buzz cook]

19. Gnostic means knowledge

Agnostic means without or lacking knowledge.
You can be an agnostic theist or atheist. It just means you don't know for sure.

There are some gnostic atheists and theist. They depend on arguments for their proof.
Some hard atheists have a persuasive case such as Aron Ra. But it depends on their own definition of a god.
Notice how gnostic and knowledge both start with a silent letter? What's up with that?

[czarjak]

20. Swear there ain't no Heaven. Pray there ain't no Hell.

You'll never know by living. Only your dying will tell. DCT

[GiqueCee]

23. Matter and energy...

... is, was, and always will be. I'll take science over imaginary Sky Daddies every time.

"Religion is the greatest fomenter of hatred and intolerance in the history of humanity." This, or something like it, has been attributed to H.L. Mencken. By all accounts, he was not a very nice person, but he sure was right about this.

I have long maintained that the sleaziest weasel in the cave said to the biggest bully in the cave, "You be government, and I'll be religion, and we'll have 'em by the short curlies for the next fifty thousand years!" We're seeing, in real time, how that's turned out.

For the record, I taught Sunday School 60 years ago, until I was told that I was not allowed to ask questions. That was the deal breaker.

[funflower]

24. Why does it matter?

Maybe there's an invisible god out there doing absolutely nothing to affect, human history, terrestrial or extra-terrestrial biology, geology, physics, or anything in the known cosmos. I see no evidence of any god who does any of those things. If there's a god (or several) sitting outside the terrarium watching us, goody for him/her/them. it makes no difference to me.

[99MainSt]

25. Things Change

Last edited Sun Mar 9, 2025, 03:59 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't believe in the god(s) of any cult or religion. That makes me an Atheist. But I don't completely rule out some grand intelligence which influences or controls the universe/multiverse. That makes me an Agnostic.

We may have evolved, too limited both in our cognitive ability and senses, to perceive realities beyond what keeps us biologically viable on this sphere. This, despite sense-enhancing technology like telescopes which see into the infra red and ultraviolet. And microscopes which make the world of the tiny visible.

In the future, science will undoubtedly come up with ways to perceive previously hidden fields of existence. That knowledge may alter what we think now.

[Littlered]

26. Evangelical turned

Agnostic, turned into a big A atheist.

[Think. Again.]

27. I'm Agnostic, because without some definite, clear message, we can't know either way...

...that being said, I'm extremely anti-religion because of how hurtful and predatory religious con artists usually are to those seeking solace.

Although I have dabbled in Humanism and I am a current member of the Satanic Temple because, so far, that's all about being a good human.

[J_William_Ryan]

28. 'Agnostic: someone whose position is that we don't, and likely cannot, know if there is a "god"'

It depends on what is meant by ‘god,’ of course; man created religion and later ‘gods’ and ‘god’ – it exists as a human construct.

But there is no ‘god’ as perceived by theists; there is no omnipotent extraterrestrial deity that hears prayers, intercedes on the behalf of humans, and issues edicts of religious dogma that must be believed lest transgressors are consigned to eternal damnation – that ‘god’ does not exist.

[edhopper]

30. Atheist

since I don't accept the existence of a god or anything supernatural. A naturalist by philosophy.
I have seen no evidence for any of this, I need not find proof a god does not exists anymore than I need proof to not accept fairies or the Loch Ness Monster, or Flying Unicorns for that matter.
Belief has nothing to do with it.