Jasen777

The joke is that an

agnostic says: I don't know

whereas

a militant agnostic says: I don't know and you don't know either



By these definitions which one are you? Why?

Taipans

I guess when discussing the topic with Christians I do toss back the same kind of question. They can no more prove me wrong then I can them. But the question should go both ways!

shadowind

militant agnostic. its not just that i don't know, but that they can't either, unless we are living in different realitys.

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remember "for mere impulse of appetite is slavery, while obedience to a law which we prescirbe to oursleves is liberty"-rousseau: the concept of the general will "if we can not reconcile all opions, then let us endeavour to unite all hearts."-?"to be is to be perceived"-? "‘We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know’-Robert G. Ingersoll

Geshtinnanna

When I think of the words of militant Agnostic I immediately just imagine someone who shrugs their shoulders in an aggressive way.

hi and welcome!
(some of us here aren't Agnostics. I am a visiting Satanist)

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greywolf90

there are things that i think are impossible to "know" but just because i believe this, doesn't mean i'm right. who knows, mabey jesus or mohammed or buddha etc. showed up at their house one day and told them what the truth was. but seriously, i don't believe there is a right religion, but i don't know that their religions are wrong.

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"for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."- Hamlet

Jasen777

Greywolf, that's pretty much my view at this time as well. But like I said in my introductory post I'm really more of a theistic agnostic with perhaps deistic and neoplatonic overtones.

Thanks for the welcome Geshtinnanna.

Skepticologist

I was a non-militant agnostic as long as I adhered to a live-and-let-live philosophy with regard to christian evangelicals. The problem is, I soon discovered that, while I was willing to let them live, they didn't reciprocate. Instead, they and their Washington lobbyists mounted an all-out effort to impose their views on my life through federal legislation and judicial decisions.

I'd seen enough of that kind of intervention in my brief study of mid-20th century American history (i.e., McCarthyism) to know that, left unchecked, it would certainly repeat itself.

So I became a card-carrying member of some notorious commie-pinko organizations like the ACLU, MoveOn.org, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation in hopes of protecting my right as an American to live my life absent the influence of bible-thumpers who'd already figured out what's good for everyone else.

As an agnostic, by definition, I don't purport to have figured out all the answers to all the questions. Even so, I should have the freedom to muddle my way through life without others, who purport to have done so on totally illogical bases, imposing their answers on me.

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"I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of."

Clarence Darrow

November Rain

Quite frankly, I think it's rather arrogant for anyone to claim with absolute certainty that whatever they believe is true. But live and let live I say, as long as people respect my beliefs then I'll respect theirs.

In other words, I'm sort-of militant, but I don't ram my beliefs down everyone else's throats.

Vinterland

It's pretty tricky to make the latter claim for technically one could know whether God exists or not, but they actually would not know that they know considering that God is illogical. I think that militant agnosticism is irrational on the grounds that knowledge is something that encompasses that which is learned logically and illogically. It is also a logical fallacy to enforce your own ignorance on others.

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And on we walked. Suddenly we heard a voice crying, "This is the sea. This is the deep sea. This is the vast and mighty sea." And when we reached the voice it was a man whose back was turned to the sea, and at his ear he held a shell, listening to its murmur.
And my soul said, "Let us pass on. He is the realist, who turns his back on the whole he cannot grasp, and busies himself with a fragment."
—Gibran Khalil Gibran, “The Greater Sea.”

Om

In my youth, I was an Apologetic Agnostic: "Sorry, I just don't know."

In my teens, I was a Sullen Agnostic: "Dunno. Don't care."

In my twenties, I was a Militant Agnostic: I. Don't. Know. And you don't either."

In my thirties, I was a Practical Agnostic: "I don't know, sweetie. Daddy's still learning too."

In my forties, I'm a Wary Agnostic: "I'm thinking we should probably define ‘God’ before trying to have a meaningful discussion about this. How long you got?"

In my fifties, I'll be ... well, I don't know. But I have to admit, as the first hints of future curmudgeonry whisper at the edges of my mind, I find myself thinking the new paradigm will probably wear camouflage again.

I'll try to keep him in line.

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