skepticism

perhaps this is one of those questions i should leave unanswered. maybe this is an area where labels, in spite of our affinity for them and their usefulness, should be purposely avoided. still, i have been considering the contrast between atheism and agnosticism.

i know this is an odd subject. our society avoids big questions like this. still, if i am to blog i prefer to spend some time blogging about the biggest of issues. if someone read this and was given pause, i could ask for no more.

strictly speaking i am an agnostic. i don't claim to know there is not a god anymore than i claim to know martians do not exist, (or the easter bunny or father time or the tooth fairy for that matter.) rather, i employ inductive reasoning in assuming there is not a god, in the sense most people think of such a being or creature.

i have not seen any evidence of god's existence nor do i know of any in the history of mankind. i have seen the folly of belief. i have the seen the tremendous amount of disagreement on the subject. i have seen the fruit of that disagreement in the form of holy wars and crusades. i understand why confucius would call belief the opium of the masses since the poor seem to harbor far more zeal than the wealthy.

belief is so subjective that if god did exist and was represented by a set of properties, the number of those who had it exactly right would be miniscule. it would probably be like 42 people in the history of mankind.

still, i can't claim, as a textbook atheist might, that i know there is no god. it is, after all, another unproveable belief. however, i prefer to call myself an atheist over an agnostic anyway. it feels less ambiguous and more honest. the fact is, i think this mass of people around the globe of varying degrees of zealotry, are mislead, deceived, confused, wrong.

the dictionary definition for agnostic:

ag·nos·tic (ag näs′tik)
noun
a person who believes that the human mind cannot know whether there is a God or an ultimate cause, or anything beyond material phenomena
Etymology: coined (1870) by Thomas Henry Huxley < a- + gnostic
adjective
of or characteristic of an agnostic or agnosticism

huxley was basically saying if it was not tangible, it could not be verified and therefore, could not be accepted as fact, which happens to be a large part of my argument against belief.

the dictionary definition for atheism is:

athe·ism (ā′t̸hē iz′əm)
noun
the belief that there is no God, or denial that God or gods exist
godlessness

it is my belief there is no god and i do think of myself as godless so this label works too. however, in believing something i do not and cannot know, i feel just like any other believer. so you see my quandary?

it's just semantics i suppose-i have no faith. still, ask me sometime and see what i say.