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Originally Posted by rebel_guy  OK, are agnostics agnostic on the issue of whether Zeus exists, or Horus, or Thor?... |
Sure. How can someone make a claim about the existence of something before that something is defined?
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Originally Posted by rebel_guy ...So why make an exception for God/Allah/Jehovah etc?... |
Who's making an exception?
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Originally Posted by rebel_guy All gods are false almost by definition. |
Prove it.
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Originally Posted by rebel_guy ...If God is all-powerful i.e. contains all the power in the universe then I must be part of God since I, like all human beings, contain some power (Spinoza argued in this fashion). If God is perfect goodness and all powerful then why does evil exist? Forget about the free will nonsense. If God is all knowing then he knows the future so all of our choices are fully determined, in which case we have no free will (and deterministic science based on cause and effect does not admit free will either). And so on...all of these debates have been rehearsed endlessly in philosophy... |
All of these arguments have been rehearsed endlessly by speculative philosophy. Speculative philosophy is not scientific philosophy.
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Originally Posted by rebel_guy An atheist is someone who says that not only can non-physical gods not exist but any entity with the properties attributed to God is a logical impossibility, hence one does not even have to look for evidence to disprove God's existence since such a being cannot exist in the first place. Do we waste time trying to disprove werewolves or vampires? Do we search for square circles? Aren't agnostics showing cowardice and lack of intellect when they refuse to commit themselves to atheism?... |
If your going to make any claim you should have evidence to back it up. Otherwise, you are just taking things on faith.
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Originally Posted by rebel_guy ...Aren't agnostics showing cowardice and lack of intellect when they refuse to commit themselves to atheism? |
No. If anything I would say atheists are showing a lack of intellect when they claim no god can exist, but that would be something like an ad hominem.
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Originally Posted by rebel_guy Leibniz argued that this must be the best of all possible worlds because if a better world were possible God would surely have made it (otherwise he would be perverse). Logically airtight... |
Logically airtight? Maybe, but you can prove anything with logic if you chose the right premises.
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Originally Posted by rebel_guy ...So, ask yourself, is this the best of all possible worlds. No? Then you ought to be an atheist! |
That question would be impossible to answer if you don't have knowledge of an absolute morality.