Why I Call Myself Agnostic

[@stacyjennings1527]

I can't decide if I'm Jehovah's witness or atheist , so I ring peoples door bells for no reason

[@j0hncon5tantine]

Who do you think acts more religious and devout? Jehovas Witnesses or atheists?

[@j0hncon5tantine]

@M M The queen atheist here where I live in orange county, ca is a very devout and religious atheist..... he rounds up the other atheists for all kinds of events and what not... Religion is essentially a blind belief with a ritual and that is exactly what 99.9% of atheists have and do..... they infer a disbelief in God or a belief that there is no God and they perform rituals such as speaking about atheism, watching atheist videos, reading atheist books, etc......

[@christinayates2496]

Stacy Jennings they ring to persuade others to join

[@j0hncon5tantine]

@@christinayates2496 Are you yourself a Jehovas witness or an atheist? Do you have interests in anything spiritual or supernatural?

[@skellingtonmeteoryballoon]

Lol!

[@frankharr9466]

I call myself an Agnostic. Because I view Atheism as much a belief as Theism, despite their protestations to the contrary. And although I recognize we live in a very large universe, I don't see how I can profess a belief regarding not only a god, which god or how many. I simply don't know. God could be Greek, or Norse or Hungarian or something we haven't conceived of. And as time has gone on, I have less hope and what might come after. But I don't know, and I must live with that as the only honest position I can take. Others might know or hope, but that is them, not me. And I agree. I find it tiresome to have people push their understanding onto me no matter how patiently I try to explain myself. It's like some people feel the label is more real than what it's supposed to signify. Personally, I tend to like what I understand to be the Quaker formulation, that everyone has a window, but not the whole picture. I'd like that to be true, to be honest.

[@CandidDate]

Doubting Thomas had to put his fingers in Jesus' wound to REALLY believe. What would it take for me to believe? Well call me a Doubting Thomas. Why so many pictures of "Gods" but they only reveal themselves slowly and sometimes painfully throughout our lives? I guess that's the definition of faith. Sometimes I think I'm agnostic as a reaction of the people fighting about certainties, and I just want to avoid fighting. Do you see what I'm saying? Peace over prosperity is quite a sacrifice, but I'm willing to bet my soul, for that beloved peace.

[@ankmamma688]

Atheism isn’t a belief it’s a lack of belief.

[@billskinner7670]

Your 4th paragraph contradicts your second sentence.

[@j0hncon5tantine]

If you are willing to bet your soul, how much of your time and effort are you willing to bet to find out for sure if God is real or not and if there is an after life or not?

[@kenshiloh]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree with you that, 'how can we know' what God - or if God - made us. To know this, you would need a time machine to go back into time, as science is pitiful when it comes to reconstructing the past - let alone the origin of the universe! That said, there is only one way to, scientifically, know what is truly what. When I look at 5 fingers on each hand, I think that the creation of them must have been intentional. That is, random chance could not have made 5 fingers on one hand, let alone on 20 billion hands! Hence, there must be a Creator. Moreover, if the Creator was kind enough to give me such marvelous instruments, perhaps the Creator would like to be a part of my life! That is what I have found to be exactly true. It is written, "This is eternal life, that you know God and Jesus Christ Whom He has sent." Get to know God personally, and, like me, you will never have any doubts about where you came from - or where you are going! Ask, and you shall receive!

[@sammjust2233]

I call myself a "personal agnostic." I'm not sure myself but I'm not insisting that everybody should be unsure also

[@afakbaig479]

Samm Just Islam is everexisting religion.the truth that God is one is recognised to man from Adam als to mohammad saw.all sciences in Quran is proved existence of God.people said humanity is big religion.But what is humanity.how software maker knows feature of software only god knows features of life.can man do five time exercise as perfectly Allah said and fasting without having faith.according to islam a mans good work is not beneficial and don't let him to jannat until he has believe in Allah in prophet Mohammad saw all other prophets like jesus peace be upon him Adam peace be upon him many,angels,books of Allah quran,bible we believe it was sent by Allah but in our age we only follow one.one quran.one prophet Muhammad saw.beacuse books like Bible are changed by man and there should only follow one.allah donor allow Muslims to kill innocent disbeliever only self defence is allowed.

[@jonahkane7027]

Afak Baig are you a Muslim? why? I’m a catholic and open for you to change my mind

[@vallthose]

Hi Samm. Personal Agnostic, I like that. I call myself a "Fierce Agnostic" because I am certain that it can not be known that there is a god, or that there is no god of any kind. I do insist that people recognize that fact, because it is the only right answer.

[@MariaJose-rn3mr]

@GREG GMW LOL

[@evolutionisbull5h1t]

@@vallthose I know god is real though, so I am even fiercer in refuting your statement and telling you that you are incorrect! This "part" of the definition of being agnostic is wrong, how can you prove this at all and there is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise so I wonder how you can possibly convince yourself.....

[@stellarstarvibe]

It's a shame that Agnostics are so rare. Because I'm not always in the mood to explain the term, sometimes I say I were Atheist.

[@afakbaig479]

jjycxsdhkkbcxzzaaszxcghvxddc Islam is everexisting religion.the truth that God is one is recognised to man from Adam als to mohammad saw.all sciences in Quran is proved existence of God.people said humanity is big religion.But what is humanity.how software maker knows feature of software only god knows features of life.can man do five time exercise as perfectly Allah said and fasting without having faith.according to islam a mans good work is not beneficial and don't let him to jannat until he has believe in Allah in prophet Mohammad saw all other prophets like jesus peace be upon him Adam peace be upon him many,angels,books of Allah quran,bible we believe it was sent by Allah but in our age we only follow one.one quran.one prophet Muhammad saw.beacuse books like Bible are changed by man and there should only follow one.allah donor allow Muslims to kill innocent disbeliever only self defence is allowed.

[@KUTE-1010]

Same dude, its too time consuming to explain so i just say I'm atheist

[@octov460]

I’m agnostic too

[@iccepicc5260]

zeldagirl lmao same

[@evolutionisbull5h1t]

@zeldagirl Yah, but just explain it, don't be lazy and call yourself an atheist.... You seem to me like you are an atheist, are you one? If so why did you become or decide to call yourself an atheist? What kind of atheist are you exactly? What really sells you on that? Do you believe your life, body, family and the ground you walk on are all a gift or something else? If you believe they are all something else then what do you think they all are then?

[@etherean369]

Agnostic seems more realistic... For God we just cannot know...there is no conclusive proof for or against his existence.

[@leonjacklyn5033]

Yea that’s real. If their was a god or godlike being or beings we wouldn’t be able to know because whoever or whatever it is is so humanely unfathomable. There must be proof for us to know, and sadly there can and will never be any proof. Because if something godlike does exist, there can be no humanely fathomable evidence, same with atheism, if there isn’t a godlike something, prove it. We can’t know. But that isn’t going to stop me from living the best life I can

[@EmperorZelos]

If your answer to "Do you believe there is a god?" is "no", then you are an atheist. Atheism is just rejecting the god hypothesis, not posing that there is no god.

[@amulya_asmi]

It is indeed more realistic and rational. We dont deny things which cant be proved. *"Just bcoz we can't prove it, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist"* and hence we don't deny unfalsifiable claims (a claim which can neither be proved or disproved). We think neutrally, and say "we dont know"

[@unhandthatscience8210]

By your definition, I would call myself an agnostic too because I don’t believe I can ever know if a god exists but I label myself an atheist because I believe if there is a god then it’s very probably not going to be any deity thought up by human

[@yub2.045]

yep, you're basically an _open-minded_ atheist, if god is proven you'll believe in it But for now, you choose to believe he most likely doesn't exist (but you're still open-minded to the possibility and wouldn't mind changing beliefs) I'm like that too

[@TheWillikids]

Same here, cause I'm not sure either if any deities exist either, for we really don't have any actual proof that they do exist. I hate to say this, but I sometimes think we're just babbling words like "praise the lord", which really isn't getting us anywhere.

[@mikeygarcia8271]

You can be sure THAT God is real. The fulfillment of biblical prophecies will serve as a proof that the God of the Bible is the one true God. According to the prophecy, the Jews will be back in the land and will become a nation again. True enough, not only did the Jews survive more than two thousand years of exile ,and during those two years they were subjected to threats of annihilation and persecution , but they survived. Case in point: More than thousands of years ago, God said that the Jewish people will be scattered in all four corners of the world - check! 2nd, they will return to their homeland , to be specific- to a desolate land [ Mark Twain, during his visit to Israel 150 years ago described the holy land as a desolate land that even cactus could hardly grow ] 3rd, they will make the land prosperous- check! considering the fact that israel was such a small country, mostly dessert, had no oil nor gas during the first 5 decades of existence..[it was re-established in 1948 btw} and always in constant threats of annihilation as they were surrounded by enemy countries. Think about this...God made a promise that He will preserve them as a separate people until the end of days despite thousands of years of persecution. I have been in Israel and you will see Jews from Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, etc..People who came to Israel from all countries of the world and yet their identity remained intact...that is nothing short of a miracle..a fulfillment of prophecy made thousands of years ago. and the list goes on...

[@timothymclean]

On many points, I agree with you. There are only two big points where we disagree. The first is just labels-I consider myself to be _philosophically_ agnostic but _practically_ atheist. In other words, while I believe it is possible for god to exist on a philosophical level, the evidence I have seen seems to suggest the nonexistence of any entity which can reasonably be called "god". But this is a painfully superficial quibble. The second and more important is that I don't think the existence of a god is unprovable. You _can_ define a god which can exist beyond the realms of provability, but the gods people describe are _not_ those gods. The God of the Bible and the Quran, the gods of Hinduism, the Shinto kami and Buddhist bodvistas and Greek demigods and the various gods of neo-pagan beliefs, all are believed to have an impact on the physical world. It might be direct, like overt miracles or gratuitous smiting, or it might be limited to speaking with the holiest of holy men. Either way, such influence *can* be proved by experiment (if such beings exist, of course). In fact, many people _have,_ only to try to shove their findings under a table when they turned up negative. Now, like I said, you _can_ define God in a way that makes it unproveable. You _can_ postulate that there is a supreme being who caused the First Cause, or that our reality is next to a reality of teeming spirits. But those beliefs are like the luminiferous aether-a relic of theories which didn't stand up to the evidence, which were modified to fit the evidence until people realized that the new theories worked perfectly well without them. If the properties of the aether are such that it cannot be detected in any reference frame, we might as well say it doesn't exist. That _is_ the current scientific position, even though no experiment truly disproving the existence of the aether has been performed.

[@Soliloquy084]

Fair criticisms, it's definitely theoretically possible for a god to reveal themselves and thus prove their existence. I don't believe that will happen but sure it's theoretically possible.

[@timothymclean]

Another little thing that's been bothering me...in the video, you've treated Atheists as a sort of movement, a group aggressively trying to get new members as much as it can. Almost like a religion. I was reluctant to complain about this, since I know you didn't _intend_ it this way, but...it sounds an awful lot like the kinds of ignorant criticisms that reactionary Christians levy at what they think atheism is. You're focusing too much on the worst stereotypes of atheism. It bugs me, so I decided to add a sub-comment about it.

[@JimCullen]

> while I believe it is possible for god to exist on a philosophical level, the evidence I have seen seems to suggest the nonexistence of any entity which can reasonably be called "god" This is certainly very true and a very important part of why I believe it is more accurate to consider most people who use the label "agnostic" as simply atheists. The _point_ of atheism is a disbelief in god because there is no proof that one exists. You don't have to declare anything close to certainty that no god exists to be atheist. You just have to not have the positive belief that there _is_ a god. Militant atheists are a subset of atheists, but the two sets should not be conflated. Perhaps more pertinent, though, is that while we can't disprove that some deity exists, we can quite confidently declare that the gods presented in literal interpretations of all the world's major religious texts clearly cannot exist. Loose or allegorical interpretations of these texts are still possible, and so would be a completely deistic god (i.e., a non-interventionist one who simply put the universe into existence and then sat back to watch), but there are far too many stories in the Bible (and other religious texts) that are just clearly false or impossible if looked at literally. In summary, we can't prove a negative (no god exists), but we _can_ disprove a positive (the Christian god presented literally in the bible exists).

[@JK03011997]

The tricky bit is, that an experiment cannot be forced, so the non existence of a god can't be proved, while the existence of only a few special types of god can be proven. So only "there is a god taking direct, predictable influence in the world" is scientifically valid as a hypothesis, "there is NO god of any type" can be proven wrong, but no experiment can be constructed in which you can force a result, so it should not be considered scientific. To illustrate imagine a god who only acted upon inherently unpredictable things, or consciously avoiding detection. Forcing miracles actually has a lot of theological history which is fascinating to read. There are great debates over this from the middle ages, when trial by combat was still done (outlawed in most countries before the middle ages ended, sometimes because of this exact theological reason). I get your point though, and I see the nuance of "at least we know there aren't some types of god, so I induce there are no types of god" having stronger reasoning than "we don't know no god does exist, so I induce there is a god", both are on very shaky grounds though. I think (practical) atheists have a lot stronger arguments to defend there position

[@tdawson198]

Timothy McLean ok but believing in a faith system is about much more than answering questions about life. It's all about giving people who otherwise wouldn't have purpose a sense of purpose. We all need a sense of purpose to thrive.

[@joshuanewman5988]

I’ve always been turned off a bit by atheism personally because I felt that it was no better an answer than religion. In my mind there’s more to this world than what we know. And I don’t like the idea of limiting what those answers could be.

[@dbuc4671]

exactly. i hate when people try to argue that they're correct when theres no definite proof to any of it. like c'mon man.

[@esrastrongie1418]

Agnostic here✋ Thanks for clarifying those points :)

[@itachisucks6693]

Bts gay

[@warpedjester]

I was once agnostic but then i found our lord and saver the great spaghetti monster.

[@DariusMakesContent]

😂

[@Narstak]

I did started has a catholic christian, but turned into atheist because my faith is with humanity. Do I fear life after death? For me, the idea is indeed scary that nothing happen after. But that's the thing. Nothing happen after. It's an eternal rest. You aren't conscious. You won't worry. You won't. You won't even know you are dead, because you won't have even the ability to know. I am alive. Let's be fair, even if paradise exist, any mind, even if changed, will find eternity pretty boring anyway.

[@Narstak]

You can say that... ;)

[@Narstak]

The devil punish bad people. Looks like a nice guy. :)

[@JK03011997]

Interesting! I started as a catholic theist as well, I turned atheist around the time I read too much Descartes and Kant (a bad argument makes me more averse of a point than any counter argument). But now, after hearing a lot of arguments from either side, I see myself as a full agnostic. I think each religion has very good arguments, why their god exists, and even abstract theism without any characterization of a god can be defended very well. But the evergreen atheist arguments like the logical and empirical problem of evil still hold a lot of ground. In the end I see faith as a desirable quality as it motivates people to do good, and my intuition tells me that there is a god, as I sometimes find myself thinking in a way one might call a formless prayer. So I would place myself a little closer to the theist side with full acknowledgement of not being able to support that tendency in any meaningful way. What I believe in quite strongly is, that no one should force their own belief upon others, while a religious, rigorous and valid moral argument can be morally wrong (eg arguing that you believe a certain group of people has no immortal soul, thus they don't deserve human rights)

[@JK03011997]

@PhilfreezeCH I think you are not giving religious texts enough credit here. A text written in collaboration of dozens of people with some amount of historical evidence to back it up has a lot more weight than a book that acknowledges to be fiction and even explicitly states that it was not meant to be read as an allegory. This is also why I strongly dislike it when people state their religion is old norse or something like, as a fashion statement, without any honest belief, it disrespectful of people with honest faith.

[@dot1482]

Vincent Pellemans According to quantum physicists, virtual particles exist briefly as fleeting fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime, like bubbles in beer foam. "The ‘bubbles’ in the quantum foam are quadrillions of times smaller than atomic nuclei and last for infinitesimal fractions of a second-or in ‘quantum-speak’, the size of a Planck Length for a Planck Time ------ I am showing you the proof that everything came from an unimaginable source (somehow) : ----- Let two atoms are connected with each other anywhere in the spacetime , X and Y ----- Planck Length of an atom X= A Planck Length of an atom Y= B ---------------- --A is nothing without B --B is nothing without A --Both of them needs each other for THEIR OWN EXISTENCE -- A didn’t create B -- B didn’t create A -- A didn’t create itself -- B didn’t create itself ------------ They both (and everything) came from an unimaginable source. -and that creator/unimaginable sent all prophets (approx 124,000 from Prophet Adam to prophet Mohammad) who introduced him and told us about God/Allah, as well as they came to us with the complete and beautiful guidance of mankind from the creator of mankind. Thank u :)

[@MarcelloSevero]

lol face reveal

[@Soliloquy084]

Sorta. On the end card, there is the video I made at NextUp which was live action, so it's not like my face wasn't out there. That video has also been on an end card before. I've done some live streams on other channels too. So my face has been out there for people to find fairly easily.

[@mybumbrash]

You look like a guy I used to work with at skycity. Are you Rowan?

[@afakbaig479]

Lord Marcellus Islam is everexisting religion.the truth that God is one is recognised to man from Adam als to mohammad saw.all sciences in Quran is proved existence of God.people said humanity is big religion.But what is humanity.how software maker knows feature of software only god knows features of life.can man do five time exercise as perfectly Allah said and fasting without having faith.according to islam a mans good work is not beneficial and don't let him to jannat until he has believe in Allah in prophet Mohammad saw all other prophets like jesus peace be upon him Adam peace be upon him many,angels,books of Allah quran,bible we believe it was sent by Allah but in our age we only follow one.one quran.one prophet Muhammad saw.beacuse books like Bible are changed by man and there should only follow one.allah donor allow Muslims to kill innocent disbeliever only self defence is allowed.

[@murdockscott]

I really enjoyed this, mainly because it so rare that I discover someone with a similar way of thinking to my own. For many years I referred to myself as an agnostic deist. I don’t pretend to know if there is (or is not) a god, but from my observation of the world around me I strongly felt like if there was a creator they had left us to our own devices. These days I am leaning away from the old watchmaker theory a bit an towards a more wonderfully random story of how everything came to be. But, thankfully my thinking is always changing a little as new information comes to light. It’s great to explore the possibilities without being held down by dogma, but I think you have to be a rare type of person that actually enjoys big questions and the feeling of not being certain.

[@mr.dr.genius6997]

I am an atheist and I think agnosticism is definitly diferent than atheism.

[@Soliloquy084]

Many Atheists don't though, through the models I talked about. Academically though that broadens atheisms to be almost everyone, at which point the term, in my opinion, isn't very useful.

[@mr.dr.genius6997]

Gary Oak We can't confirm it but we can belive in the nonexistence of a higher power.

[@arrgghh1555]

Atheism is "not believing there is a god" not "believing there is no god". It is an absence of belief not a belief in a negative. Also everyone is agnostic about 'God', those that claim otherwise are just factually wrong. It's a completely irrelevant term in the religious debate.

[@treyshaffer]

Arrgghh No... Atheists do believe that there is no God or gods. Absence of belief only exists if you define belief to be the religious sentiment associated with faith, other than that, any assertion or positioning in an argument is the statement of some epistemological belief

[@queenofbruisess]

Trey, you're completely wrong. From Wikipedia: "Atheism is, in the broadest sense, the absence of belief in the existence of deities." The etymological root even means "without gods". If I identify as an atheist and define atheism that way then the statement "Atheists do believe that there is no God or gods" is just wrong... Unless you wanna dispute my identity, of course.

[@michasjanur7256]

Best option for me is 'apatheism' - I just don't care if some kind of god exist or not.

[@fuzzycat3651]

Michał Janur I do care, because if I found out god exists for sure, that would change how I think in everyday life. I would pray all of the time and stay connected to god always. I don't do that now.

[@aliwankenobi_]

If we are threatened with a serious situation that will happen to us if we do not believe it, we should resort to an investigation in order to make a judgment on the claim, even if we do not believe it. God is a proposition that requires logical attention.

[@Mrsquiggley]

I’m an Agnostic Theist, something that’s completely confusing to a lot of people

[@Mrsquiggley]

WIlliam Bell something along those lines, I think a god exists but I also believe all religion is entirely false, as if there is a deity then it’s either disinterested in us, completely beyond our current realm of understanding or a complete dick who likes toying with us by inspiring many conflicting religions for its own amusement, if an interested understanding and no dick deity existed, all of humanity would of shared in the same religion irregardless of location on earth.

[@arrgghh1555]

Everyone is agnostic about 'God', those that claim otherwise are just factually wrong. It's a completely irrelevant term in the religious debate.

[@skeltnclique4718]

Agnostics are usually peaceful, that's why religious people don't know about it that much

[@Whooahh]

@@Mrsquiggley I know this post is a year old, but what you've just described belief wise is what Deist believe. You're more of a Deist, not an Agnostic Theist.

[@HiDefOuch]

@@Whooahh I can see how you could find more deists who are agnostic than theists, but I assure you there are plenty of mainline Christians, Muslims and Hindus who are all agnostic (do not claim to have actual knowledge).

[@deldarel]

What you gave is the best description of what it means to be agnostic that I've found so far. Those who say 'I'm agnostic because you can't be certain' piss me off because it's a 'belief' for a reason and you can always get to a point of 'I believe' or 'I don't believe' through enough introspection, but your nuance of 'I believe I have a soul' really adds to your reasoning. I'm personally a soft atheist: I don't believe until it's proven, but since god can't be proven nor disproven, I believe my empirical evidence thus I don't think he exists, but I'd love to see someone prove me wrong. I'm a 6. However, I'm also of the opinion that it's irrelevant what I think because it's useless to take a stance on an unfalsifiable statement. To me 'god' is nothing more than a concept, and it's one that doesn't interest me. I feel that the line between agnosticism and atheism is this: The atheist says "I'm sceptical of the supernatural so I don't believe in god" but the agnost adds "but I belief there's something we cannot see. It's just a hunch or a feeling". Because it's a belief, resolving it through your personal feelings is not invalid, and only a 1 on the scale would say that a religion is not a belief but fact. I've been raised in an atheist household so god, heaven and hell have always been more like fairy tales to me than a part of life so I never had to distance myself from something. Something that did fascinate me was what actually made people believe to begin with. It was hard to imagine for me. Nowadays it's still hard to image how someone could convert from one religion to the other. I can't remember at time where I didn't believe dying is the final act. It's not a void either, for it to be a void you need to be able to sense nothing, but you're not sensing to begin with. It's like the questions 'what's before the big bang?' It's not 'nothing' because there is no 'before'. Time is part of our universe so there can never be a time before our universe. And to those who say 'I don't know if I believe in a god', start sorting it out. Yes or no, there are no wrong answers since it's a matter of belief, not fact. It doesn't mean you can't be religious or spiritual either. There are buddhist schools that are heavily spiritual but don't have a god so they would answer 'no' if asked if they believe in a god. If you think there is something 'like god' that's all around us, then you either do or do not believe in a god depending on how you classify that entity, where again there are no wrong answers since it's belief, not fact (also, read up on Spinoza's idea of a god). Also, don't feel rushed. This question can take a long time, but I think it's an important journey to take if you don't know it yet because it allows you to see part of your psyche. I have respect for those who say "I don't know, I'm not there yet", I don't have respect for those who say "I don't know and I don't care".

[@afakbaig479]

Deldarel Islam is everexisting religion.the truth that God is one is recognised to man from Adam als to mohammad saw.all sciences in Quran is proved existence of God.people said humanity is big religion.But what is humanity.how software maker knows feature of software only god knows features of life.can man do five time exercise as perfectly Allah said and fasting without having faith.according to islam a mans good work is not beneficial and don't let him to jannat until he has believe in Allah in prophet Mohammad saw all other prophets like jesus peace be upon him Adam peace be upon him many,angels,books of Allah quran,bible we believe it was sent by Allah but in our age we only follow one.one quran.one prophet Muhammad saw.beacuse books like Bible are changed by man and there should only follow one.allah donor allow Muslims to kill innocent disbeliever only self defence is allowed.

[@naomi_p98]

I disagree I’m an agnostic it’s. Not so simple saying I believe or don’t believe it’s simply I do not know

[@molotovmafia2406]

i´m also an agnostic! i was a christian as a kid, then i became a militant atheist for a short while, but now i understand that i can´t ever know if god(s) or the supernatural exist or not. this helps me be more open to other viewpoints and also assess religious questions in a more utilitarian manner. like the question is not "is this religion real" but "why, when and where did it appear? are its teachings good and how do they influence others? is religion as a whole a beneficial thing?"

[@Jestrath]

This video perfectly sums up why I am agnostic. I guess more specifically I am an agnostic theist.

[@j0hncon5tantine]

How much do you care to know for sure that God exists or not?

[@yub2.045]

me too, I'm agnostic but I practice and affiliate myself with a religion because why not 🤷

[@aleisley5797]

Agnostics are open to the idea of god. The thing is, we don't really see the deities of earth as real since there is no factual evidence they exist. The problem I think with being agnostic is how do we even define what a god is? Is a super advanced alien already god? A being made of ether? Something like Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet? It's hard my dudes/dudettes...

[@chrisantoniou4366]

Hear, hear!

[@stebarg]

As our mental capacity is limited as it is, agnostic is the only way to go, I guess❤️

[@chrisantoniou4366]

Quite. In the same way that each of our living cells is individually unaware of us, it doesn't make us any lass real...

[@bosgotnojams]

Agnostic is a pain to explain irl. -_-

[@LanaErenLilo]

My entire family is Muslim, but my mother and father raised me to respect every religion. That's how i lived till now i respected them but one time there was a point i really wanted to be something and since my family is muslim i tried to be muslim, after that i saw im not really into keeping it. Then i tried with Katholic i went to church and tried to be katholic my mum is muslim but she never was disappointed she said that there is only one god and there are different ways how to believe she loves me still the same doesn't matter what i am. All she wanted is me to respect them. I tried and kept trying but for me it was not i wasnt interested in katholic too Then i decided to be atheist bc i thought im not made for religion. But i got sad sometimes depressed bc not believing in anything simply made me not comfortable. I tried to push myself so hard but actually i believe there is a god i just dont know for sure but im hoping so so now im saying im agnostic bc i feel like nobody came back and told us if there is a god in the afterlife All what matters i was believing in god but i didnt want to give him any name, i think its the right thing for me since i feel better saying i believe there is a god but i dont want to push myself in a certain religion. I didnt feel depressed anymore it was better too, say yes there is a god and i believe there must be one but not with a certain religion. What do you think of my point of view? Does it make me gnostic or agnostic? Thank you for the awesome video.

[@Esmeralda-gt6uf]

Before I believe anything, I search for evidence. If no evidence, I disbelieve. Belief is not knowledge.

[@SmackDabCola]

@@Esmeralda-gt6uf in theory god exists your arrogant to not belief thinking its false without proof

[@pagecollector4856]

Then you are an agnostic theist.

[@gorgebutton5885]

This seems like a very calm comment section. I would respectfully implore anyone who hasn’t to listen to some educated debates between agnostics and Muslims. Just to expand your knowledge. Peace.

[@article580]

I call myself an agnostic because there is a lot of proof that god doesn’t exist but I still feel like maybe there is a possibility

[@walterino831]

My view is why should we believe in something that has no evidence and the very belief itself has many contradictories and doesn't make sense. I think the universe could have been made by some higher power or being but if it was there is not enough proof or information available to us to know. If there was a God I don't think it would be anything like how the Bible tells it as things that are meant to have been taken as fact in the Bible have been proven wrong such as Earth being only 6000 years old and everything being made in 7 days. I think we should just try to base our beliefs on what we know and not what could be.

[@qabbala1015]

@@walterino831 The problem being that we know absolutely nothing. There is as much evidence for God as there is for his non-existence. Which is to say, none.

[@walterino831]

@@qabbala1015 what we know is that the Bible has many contradictions and false information in it. If some parts of the bible are wrong why should I trust the parts we can't disprove. We know that in times when people are in need of a miracle only other people and science can save them not praying and begging a sphageti monster in the sky to help. Also if there is not enough proof for a God then why believe in one. Atheists don't have all the answers and they don't claim to have all the answers and thats whats so beautiful about science. We're trying to discover new things figure out the unknown. So if there isn't enough proof for a universe that was created without a God it doesn't matter cause that's what we're trying to figure out its theists which claim that they have all the answers about the world not atheists and agnostics

[@qabbala1015]

@@walterino831 Science is constantly wrong. Science has been wrong about basically everything since it's inception. The scientific method literally hinges on the notion that science is constantly wrong. And it is always wrong because of ignorance of a given variable, which in this case, may be functionally infinite. The fact of the matter is that you don't understand how science works any more than you understand theology. Science is not a substitute for ontology, and it never has broached the subject in any substantial way. You claim that the Bible has been 'disproven' many times, but even if you actually subscribe to a legitimate epistemological formula that validates that (which I doubt) you would then have to argue that that formula is absolute enough to justify ANY logical assumption, with only your incredibly limited data set of human knowledge as the basis, across the vast tracts of the unknown. The smartest ant literally cannot comprehend human society, logic, and science. Does that mean we don't exist? Of course not. An ant may logically conclude that humans, based on their perception and knowledge of the universe, cannot be real. They simply are not knowledgeable or intelligent enough to perceive us. If you believe ants are any different from humans, you are again looking at Earth as a dataset and applying it across the vast stretches of possibility. We do not understand the universe or its diverse logic (think quantum mechanics or astrophysics) at all, much less enough to make a reasonable decision as to the nature of existence. And the assumption that atheism is a default is not logically sound at all. Using the 'burden of proof' as an ontological argument is like using pepper spray on a modern battlefield. Pepper spray is useful, but hopelessly out of its league. The burden of proof was meant to counter the skewed logic of epistemic presumption, which can only happen when some knowledge of the subject or extrapolation via other datasets exist. Essentially, Christianity is statistically not going to be true, but neither is atheism or any ontological belief. But one of them will be true, although it may not be one that humans could possibly perceive of. Or it may be. But we don't know, and atheism is the presumption that we do. Any belief as to the nature of the universe is logically flawed, like guessing the direction of a line with only one point. Agnosticism doesn't presume to know.

[@AnarchoReptiloidUa]

Have no "belive-disbelieve" dichotomy in my views. Instead of it i have this "known-unknown" approach to everything 😊

[@Grofvolkoren]

I describe myself as an atheist. Out of the many questions you can ask about the existence of god. What drives me most towards being and calling myself an atheist, is that wherever you are in the world, in which ever time humans existed, some believe seemed to exist. Yet never was it the same. A real deity would have send the same instructions, the same story. Yet some worshipped trees, some the sky, the sun and stars and others a river. The only sharing factor is human fantasy. God didn't create men, men created god.

[@ohlsen1987]

Can someone point me in the direction of books on Agnosticism? Thanks!

[@Narmatonia]

I say irreligious, as in there may be a god/gods, but the wild guesses of lowly humans are highly unlikely of being correct

[@Marah493]

God’s love letter to YOU You may not know Me, but I know everything about you. Psalm 139:1 I know when you sit down and I know when you rise up. Psalm 139:2 I am familiar with all your ways. Psalm 139:3 Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. Matthew 10:29-31 For you were made in My image. Genesis 1:27 In Me you live and move and have your being. Acts 17:28 For you are My offspring. Acts: 17:28 I knew you even before you were conceived Jeremiah 1:4-5 I chose you when I planned creation. Ephesians 1:11-12 You are not a mistake, for all your days are written in My book. Psalms 139:15-16 I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live. Acts 17:26 You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalms 139:14 I knit you together in your mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13 And brought you forth on the day you were born. Psalm 71:6 I have been misrepresented by those who don’t know me. John 8:41-44 I am not distant and angry, but AM the complete expression of love. 1 John 4:16 And it is my desire to lavish my love on you. 1 John 3:1 Simply because you are my child and I am your father. 1 John 3:1 I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. Matthew 7:11 For I am the the perfect father. Matthew 5:48 Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. James 1:17 For I am your provider and I meet all of your needs. Matthew 6:31-33 My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. Jeremiah 29:11 Because I love you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3 My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore. Psalm 139:17-18 And I rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 I will never stop doing good to you. Jeremiah 32:40 For you are my treasured possession. Exodus 19:5 I desire to establish you with all My heart and all My soul. Jeremiah 32:41 And I want to show you great and marvelous things. Jeremiah 33:3 If you seek Me with all your heart, you will find me. Deuteronomy 4:29 Delight in Me and I will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 For it was I who gave you those desires. Philippians 2:13 I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine. Ephesians 3:20 For I am your greatest encourager. 2 Thessalonians 2: 16-17 I am also the father who comforts you in all your troubles. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 When you are broken hearted, I am close to you. Psalm 34:18 As a shepherd Carrie’s a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart. Isaiah 40:11 One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes. Revelation 21:3-4 And I will take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth. Revelation 21:3-4 I am your father, and I love you even as I love my Son Jesus. John 17:23 For in Jesus, My love for you is revealed. John 17:26 He is the exact representation of My being. Hebrews 1:3 He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you. Romans 8:31 And to tell you that I am not counting your sins. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 His death was the My ultimate expression of My love for you. 1 John 4:10 I gave up everything I love that I might gain your love. Romans 8:31-32 If you receive the gift of my Son Jesus, you receive Me. 1John 2:23 And nothing will ever separate you from My love again. Romans 8 38-39 Come home and I will throw the biggest party Heaven has ever seen. Like 15:7 I have always been Father and will always be Father. Ephesians 3:14-15 My question is….. Will you be My child? John 1 :12-13 I AM WAITING FOR YOU Luke 15: 11-32 GOD BLESS YOU ALL

[@irvine089]

I struggle with the idea of labeling. After a lot if thought i decided to call myself a follower of Jesus and not a Christian. The word Christian is broad and includes extreme ideas that I don't agree with. I believe in the early church and strive to understand what they believed, why and how they lived in responce. I really liked this video, the way you explained your point of view and the complexity of what you call yourself.

[@Soliloquy084]

Thanks for watching irvine089, I'm happy you enjoyed it, it's a complex topic but I gave it my best shot.

[@aaronsaunders6974]

again, this seems like a term that is used by people who don’t wanna refer 2 themselves as atheists.

[@livelife3922]

THANK YOU!!!! I have never been able to fully explain in what I believe untill I found Agnosticism and then I wasn't able to explain being Agnostic, I was searching through my reccomended videos when I found this video.....you changed my life and now I can be able to live a life that is explainable, thanks to you I am happier. I always thought I was an Athiest but my brother told me about being Agnostic. I was confused at first but he explained in details for me. I am very happy he explained in details because now I understand way more and I can finally live better. When I was an Atheist I always thought there was no god but I also thought there was a god. Being able to have a religion to explain me is a dream cone true. My life had never been the same ever since I got older, I started out as a Christian but that was me as a younger child I didn't understand religion and never really paid it any attention. As I started thinking more about my religion I started to not believe in god but now here I am in the middle of believing here's a god and not believing there's a god. I LOVE BEING AGNOSTIC!!!!!! I hate not being able to believe in anything after I die and I hate wondering, sometimes I just wanna die right at the moment but then I get thinking on what if I font exist anymore...or if I am stuck dying over and over again for all eyernity...or if I turn into an animal...or I am a spirit stuck in the same place I died in...you never know and someday soon I hope we can figure out everything that happens in this world. Now if you are reading this I wanna know how most people go through their whole life not questioning this world AT ALL and how some people don't even get scared when they think about dying it leaves me wondering, HOW? How do you not question life? Thank you, lots of love💘💘💘 - Lucy, 11 year old 6th grader, 2019

[@thomaspark02]

Thank you for teaching me my identity. I was confused if I have to call me an atheist or not. I was thinking that god(s) might exist. People from both sides call me either a dumbhead. However, by learning this new position, I can now proudly call myself agnostic, teaching others a new position and making them understand that there is a third position.

[@Kaxxonxbox]

Had a conversation earlier where someone asked me what my beliefs are. I told them I identify at most with Agnosticism. They said “Oh so your atheist”.. I said ummm “Not exactly” then referred them to this video.

[@mikeygarcia8271]

You can be sure THAT the God is real. The fulfillment of biblical prophecies will serve as a proof that the God of the Bible is the one true God. According to the prophecy, the Jews will be back in the land and will become a nation again. True enough, not only did the Jews survive more than two thousand years of exile ,and during those two years they were subjected to threats of annihilation and persecution , but they survived. Case in point: More than thousands of years ago, God said that the Jewish people will be scattered in all four corners of the world - check! 2nd, they will return to their homeland , to be specific- to a desolate land [ Mark Twain, during his visit to Israel 150 years ago described the holy land as a desolate land that even cactus could hardly grow ] 3rd, they will make the land prosperous- check! considering the fact that israel was such a small country, mostly dessert, had no oil nor gas during the first 5 decades of existence..[it was re-established in 1948 btw} and always in constant threats of annihilation as they were surrounded by enemy countries. Think about this...God made a promise that He will preserve them as a separate people until the end of days despite thousands of years of persecution. I have been in Israel and you will see Jews from Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, etc..People who came to Israel from all countries of the world and yet their identity remained intact...that is nothing short of a miracle..a fulfillment of prophecy made thousands of years ago. and the list goes on...

[@soleenzo893]

omg i love how balanced your analysis is thanks

[@JackDrewitt]

Quaker/friend, cool worship, they've never done anything wrong and they're good for the community.

[@lovelyladyfeet3940]

I always say that I am agnostic. Because that is what I truly am. I don’t know if a god/gods/ higher power exists or not. I often find myself leaning towards agnostic atheist but even that is something I don’t feel fully comfortable with calling myself. I agree with Neil Degrasse Tyson that “ I don’t see any evidence for a god but if evidence is presented then I will except it”

[@entoris476]

Atheism doesn't push forward the 'belief' that there is no God. You are correct to say that is a positive claim which indeed requires evidence to show. Atheism rather is the rejection of a God due to a lack of evidence. Just because you don't believe that it's true doesn't mean that you can confidently say that it is, nor that it isn't, you just don't have evidence to conclude either and as a result, reject the claim that one does exist which Theists claim. You are an Atheist in my eyes, even though you choose to not label yourself that way.

[@deldarel]

There are multiple ways you can be atheist. Some actually are those militant god-deniers that believe everybody who thinks in the supernatural is stupid by default and who think they know for sure no god exists. These are always the ones strawmanned by those who want to discredit atheists. It's the nuance between "I don't believe god exists" and "I believe god does not exist". Both are atheist, but their approach is different.

[@jraw7199]

Deldarel An even better way to describe the 2 types of atheism would be "I know that there is No God" or "I am pretty sure that there is no god" this is the pretty much the same as in the God Delusion. Being 7 and 6 respectively

[@TheSkcube]

Deldarel honestly I haven't seen any other type of atheist other than the militant kind.

[@queenofbruisess]

Selva, that's the point. The ones that simply don't have a belief one way or the other don't really care about proving a point. There isn't a point to prove. I'll always come out of the woodwork when someone acts better than people who identify as atheists because they're an 'agnostic', though. It's just a term to make sure everyone for sure absolutely knows you don't believe there is no god. 'Agnostic atheist' is a good enough term for me.

[@Sol-jj7de]

This viewpoint on atheism is very good, however there are different ways to not belive in a deity; as in total rejection or what you have claimed. Just like how there are different kinds of christianty. (Catholithsism, Eastern orthodox, etc. )

[@giuliabaptista8733]

I consider myself Agnostic, exactly because I won’t argue the existence of God with anyone. I’d rather hear what people have to say about God, theists and atheists, and maybe someday if there’s proof I’ll finally “take a side” in conversations. However, I live my life with a Christian mentality because I was raised in a Christian family and school. With that I mean I try my best to always respect other beings and the environment; “they are sacred and God supposedly lives in his creation”. I just disposed of the heaven/hell, reward/punishment mentality, and stopped making mental gymnastics to convince myself of one thing or the other. I don’t know if it made sense, because the subject itself is kinda confusing...

[@giuliabaptista8733]

(Making myself clearer: I don’t really believe in God, and I don’t disbelieve either, but I believe that IF God exists it is the nature.)

[@supersmashsam]

From what I understand, you are an agnostic atheists. The definitions are clear : As you said, an agnostic is someone not believing in god or semething similar because of not having any knowledge or way of knowing about such a being. This is the scientific, pragmatic way of seeing things. We have no way to experimentally test for the existence of god, therefore, god is not scientifically provable or disprovable. Therefore my answer is I don't know. An atheist is someone not believing in a Deity, as described in a sacred text, such as the bible, the Coran or simply transmitted by oral tradition. Therefore, someone could be a : gnostic theist : believing in the God from Christianism and believing the Bible to be true, for example. gnostic atheist : believing in the existence of a superior deity, whithout knowing what this being is. For example : an alien "engineer" bringing life on earth. agnostic atheist : not believing in any deity because of not having proof of such a deity. agnostic theist : believing without having any proof For example, believing in Mahomet, but not necessarily adhering to Islam and the Coran. (which can seem a bit contradictory) My point is, agnostism and atheism aren't part of the same spectrum, but two complementary concepts. The definitions can be similar and vary a bit from places and times, but I think that we sometime need to take a step back from the public debate and clarify those things. Yes, words can "oversimplify" our way of thinking, but they are our only way of communicating and having clear definitions is the only way to have constructive discussions. You shouldn't be afraid of calling yourself an agnostic atheist just because it's unpopular, if this is what best describes you. I've seem a video recently addressing those definitions, but unfortunately, it's in french. I can still send you the link if you want! Seee you soon!

[@andrewdobson813]

These are probably things that still need to be hammered out and it will take some time. Cosmic skeptic is, in my opinion, an anti-theist, but seems to self-identify as an atheist. The definitions are far from settled. A step back from public debate, where we all have the social graces of attack dogs. would be welcome.

[@Zoza15]

Some people just don't dare to say - I don't know..

[@HattmannenNilsson]

For a long time I referred to myself as an agnostic because I didn't want to call myself a full blown atheist. I can entertain the possibility of there being some kind of deistic god. A prime mover of sorts that just gave the void a gentle nudge to encourage it to spawn the universe and who then just stood back to watch what happens. As it turns out, though, I was just a victim of the common misunderstanding of the word atheist. I always assumed that it was the polar opposite of having a belief in a god; i.e. believing that no gods does or can exist. The term atheist is much simpler than that though. It literally just means "no god" or "without god". So if you don't believe in any particular god, you are by definition an atheist. Even if you are happy to entertain the possibility of gods of any kind - if you aren't convinced that some sort of god exists, however you wish to define it, you are effectively an atheist. At least that's how I've come to understand the term. Rather than signifying a belief in the non-existence of something, it just means a lack of belief.

[@jalalsalehofficial]

so far Im seeing that I believe there is an ultimate creator(s) that ignited the first particles stemming to big bangs and universes creating and expanding within and outside.

[@xWood4000]

I strongly identify as an agnostic atheist. I'm tired of people correcting me to being just agnostic.

[@xWood4000]

(This means that if someone could provide really strong evidence I may start believing in God but I may require unreasonable amounts of evidence to conclude that.)

[@metametodo]

What you said would be the ideal scientific stand on this. It's unscientific to say that absolutely there is no god, we can't prove it doesn't. But the proofs given to us until now saying he does don't stay still. So that would put us in a purely neutral position, like a simple agnostic? No. We try to find answers since we're scientists, we won't be purely neutral and be devoid of opinion and hypothesis. So we end up following what Sagan said "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidences". God existing is a huge claim. We need many strong evidences.

[@metametodo]

Sorry, I got all riled up with these thoughts.

[@xWood4000]

Lívio Fragoso No problem, you hav good points.

[@j0hncon5tantine]

@zwood2000 There really is no such thing as an agnostic atheist, you really are one or the other, atheists of this age want to call agnostics atheist as well to count more among their number and that is why this issue has come up, but if you look up the origins of both words and their real technical meanings then you will know they are very dissimilar.... Do you believe your body, life, family and the ground you get to walk on are all a gift or something else? If you think it is something else then what do you think it is then?

[@Justinefallinwings]

Thank you, I have my dear friend, " what do you mean, you are agnostic?' makes sense now

[@AIKsupporter]

I am a proud beleiver in Jesus Christ our lord and saviour

[@spartanx9293]

Same just don't be an evangelist those guys are dicks

[@BumbleBee-eh3cn]

Christian must evangelize. Jesus commands us to tell everyone that Grace is free. Just admit you are a sinner and Ask Jesus into your heart as your Saviour. See Bible. It is a grand commission.

[@BumbleBee-eh3cn]

Christian here. Answer these people with Christ. This is a mission field. Some of these people are looking for Christ as an answer. Excited to read another Believers post. Go Jesus.

[@sinchithavetrivel2038]

@@BumbleBee-eh3cn Amen amen...mission field...try..let's goo

[@sinchithavetrivel2038]

Me too

[@ashl2115]

I describe myself as born Anglican, practicing agnostic. I classify myself as agnostic when census day comes round. I clarify that by explaining I think it's possible that more exists in the universe than can be explained by science but I do not trust the word of any institution of religion because they are run by people, not the divine, therefore to my mind their motivations are suspect.

[@context_required]

If im honest im an atheist but i really dont care i know that sounds bad but i dont beleive in a god so i guess im an atheist but i kinda belive that each person should listen to who they desire even if they want to be their own "God" that just means they base their morals on what thye think is right

[@mikeygarcia8271]

You can be sure THAT the God is real. The fulfillment of biblical prophecies will serve as a proof that the God of the Bible is the one true God. According to the prophecy, the Jews will be back in the land and will become a nation again. True enough, not only did the Jews survive more than two thousand years of exile ,and during those two years they were subjected to threats of annihilation and persecution , but they survived. Case in point: More than thousands of years ago, God said that the Jewish people will be scattered in all four corners of the world - check! 2nd, they will return to their homeland , to be specific- to a desolate land [ Mark Twain, during his visit to Israel 150 years ago described the holy land as a desolate land that even cactus could hardly grow ] 3rd, they will make the land prosperous- check! considering the fact that israel was such a small country, mostly dessert, had no oil nor gas during the first 5 decades of existence..[it was re-established in 1948 btw} and always in constant threats of annihilation as they were surrounded by enemy countries. Think about this...God made a promise that He will preserve them as a separate people until the end of days despite thousands of years of persecution. I have been in Israel and you will see Jews from Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, etc..People who came to Israel from all countries of the world and yet their identity remained intact...that is nothing short of a miracle..a fulfillment of prophecy made thousands of years ago. and the list goes on...

[@niku..]

I don't believe in any supernatural power because I started out as a believer. I came to the conclusion that my belief had no basis so I changed my label from a christian to an atheist but I'm not sure of anything because I can't be sure about anything. I describe myself as an agnostic atheist (or simply as just an atheist). I want people to think critically which is why I like talking about beliefs and challenge those beliefs if I can. Regarding that nihilism thing, I don't view death too negatively. Yes, living longer is a great idea and we should strive to make lives longer because death and aging are just diseases we have to fight but death is also encouraging. You have a limited time on earth so you should try your best to use this time. If there's a life after death, I could just use the time after death and waste my time on earth. At some point I wouldn't want to continue living anyways because with infinite time to use I can do everything... infinitely many times. This is probably the most boring thing I could imagine

[@sinchithavetrivel2038]

Being a Christian,now an Atheist...that's so pity on you...I tasted The Love of Jesus in my school days. Wow that turned my life to a new happiest, peaceful life...

[@r.c.whitaker296]

I guess I am an agnostic Christian? I believe but I don't know. BUT I do believe in evolution, modern medicine, astrophysics, and, you know, science? So I am a Christian but not an idiot. 🙏💡🦖🐒🌎🌄💻📚⚗️🔬🔭📡💉💊

[@PastorSkeptic]

That to me sounds more like agnostic theist... no?

[@Jestrath]

@@PastorSkeptic I am an agnostic theist. If you are agnostic theist you believe more in the potential for a God to exist than not. You do not claim to know the properties of said God. You don't subscribe to any particular religion either. At least that is the way I understand it. I'm not sure being mostly Christian but not be sure if they believe is really an agnostic theist. Maybe just a doubtful Christian?

[@albertcoll9]

answering "i don't know" to whether you believein god or not is the most agnostic answer to the question. you are actually answering it: you don't know if you believe in god or not. therefere, you are agnostic to your believe in the matter.

[@jameshumphreys9715]

there is a difference between an agnostic and atheist, yet you can be an atheist agnostic as you explain, yet you can be a theist agnostic, I count myself as an atheist gnostic.

[@americanliberal09]

Yeap! That's just only your own opinion.

[@jerchiury]

If faced with the question "either you believe or you don't", I would simply reply that belief is not a logical position, and has no grounds in philosophy. In other words, belief alone does not decide the existence or non-existence of God. It is the Certainty of the underlying causes of the belief that logically decides the question, and we are back at the basis of agnosticism - knowledge, or certainty. Believing or not believing is an irrelevant philosophical question.

[@japzone]

Thanks for this. I'm in a similar position. I was raised in a shared Christian and Jewish household, but as much as I like the idea that there's some nice deity watching over me, I just have a hard time embracing it without evidence. I also can't prove that they don't exist though without heavy fudging using context clues, as just because you can't find definitive evidence that something exists doesn't mean it's not there(how many times have we found life in places we thought impossible). The math just has too many undefined variables. So I'm in the middle pretty much. I can't say one side is right over the other but I definitely can't say they are wrong. There's definitive evidence that evolution is a thing, but that doesn't mean that a deity had no hand in it. For all we know God created this universe like a giant simulator, plugged in a few variables, and then sat back for the most part to see what happenes, only occasionally stepping in when desired. Sort of like how we are training deep neutral networks today.

[@larrycoleman8149]

HUGE FAN. Keep up with the great work.

[@Soliloquy084]

Thanks for watching Larry Coleman, I'm happy you enjoyed it.

[@-c7186]

something something Max Stirner

[@yasha12isreal]

- a spooky lol

[@j_5244]

“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

[@sinchithavetrivel2038]

Amen

[@Reubentheimitator6572]

I just came up with this label for myself: a slightly dubitative Christian.

[@morphygaming9443]

Would you want me to help u?

[@joydorsett1631]

What exactly is that?

[@qabbala1015]

@@joydorsett1631 Presumably someone with a somewhat skeptical outlook, but still a belief, in the Christian God

[@mikeygarcia8271]

Can I ask you something? Can a people become a nation again after having been dispersed in different parts of the world for more than two thousand years? And in the countries where they were exiled, they were the minority and were heavily persecuted. They were not allowed to secure jobs and were often expelled from their lands. And throughout the ages, kings, queens, political and religious leaders tried to annihilate them...do you think they could survive as a people? Could they become a nation again, much less become a powerful force in the region when they get back from exile? Considering they are a small country, as small as New Jersey with the land mostly dessert, surrounded by enemies who wanted to annihilate them and with hardly any natural resources that even Mark Twain in his diary said that even cactus were having a hard time to grow in this arid, bone dry and dessicated land ? What do you think?

[@Reubentheimitator6572]

@@mikeygarcia8271 Yes you can ask me something as you asked. I'm confused by you asking me this question now though. A part of my answer is "Yes, they - being the Israelis, because I think you are thinking of the Israelis - can be a nation."

[@chrisantoniou4366]

First of all, I consider myself to be an agnostic because I don't know if there is a god or not. On the other hand, I don't believe there is some sort of continuum with theists on one side, atheists on the other and everyone else somewhere between the two. Now, just because I don't know if there is "a" god, doesn't mean I can't say with certain knowledge that the gods described by all religions is false, and that of course makes me an "atheist" in most people's eyes.. Therefore, I have knowledge, but not complete knowledge and that informs my belief, which is of course something else entirely. So, having rejected the possibility of the gods that form the cornerstone of existing religion based on knowledge, but because that knowledge ins't complete, I can't preclude ALL possible definitioins of god. Having said that, I firmly believe, based on knowledge that is available to anyone, there is more to our Universe than meets the eye and that science cannot answer all questions. Please don't confuse this with science being "wrong", but there are just some questions it can't answer like - is coffee better than tea? is so-and-so beautiful? is Beethoven's ninth the greatest symphony? which is better art, the Mona Lisa or The Girl with a Pearl Earring? and so on. These things might be metaphysical but then so are our desires, dislikes and beliefs, and indeed life itself. Happy to discuss.

[@Bookworm-ye9qi]

Agnostic = I don't know if there's a god or not. Simple as that

[@stanlawrence3601]

Sorry I'm late to the party... but I'm confused... why is it relevant to talk about "feeling like there's a soul" or "preferring a benevolent god" at 2:45 ? Surely what you feel like or prefer in your mind is literally irrelevant to what it actually is? Or am I missing the point?

[@stanlawrence3601]

@jurpleoi oh fair enough... i guess it's cos i believe that what I'm thinking is completely distinct to the truth

[@rogerroberts5167]

I am a humanist. Good/God is in everyone. It is our duty to find it and live our life. But for me there is no God or Gods as organised religions preach

[@smikeesaur3282]

Is it possible to be an agnostic theist? I don't know what to call myself.

[@r.c.whitaker296]

That's me 👋

[@ThatGuyBradley]

Is it equally irrational to say no to the question of do you believe in fairies?

[@Soliloquy084]

I don't think it's entirely comparable for a couple of reasons. Faries, unicorns, mermaids and so on are supposed to be on Earth, we have now done a pretty thorough look and found none, a god is supposed to be in some transcendent inaccessible place, we can't do the equivalent search. Also belief in fairies is more equivalent to asking about a specific god construct such as the Christian God while agnosticism is addressing any type of God.

[@deldarel]

'is it equally irrational to say no to the question of 'do you believe in a parallel universe made entirely out of cheese'?'

[@TheOwenMajor]

Who says? Why can't there be fairies living in the next Galaxy over?

[@BlacksmithTWD]

Trouble with the vast majority about the questions about belief in god is the lack of defining god by both the party asking the question as the person answering the question. Hence they are asking for either a confirmation or denyal of the existence of something that might be entirely different for the one asking than for the one answering.

[@covenantsoul8027]

You have a point. Sounds like militant atheists are trying to bully you, because they are also unsure but do not want to admit it. If you stand firm, you are exposing the arrogance of such atheism. Hard atheism is impossible, because in order to know that something does not exist, one has to have all knowledge, which is what an omniscient God would have. Softer forms of atheism admit the possibility of a Creator and then go on to explain why there is no Creator, which seems dishonest. (Readers - spare me the responses about unicorns, etc - the Creator of the universe and you, is not an arbitrary deity). There are also forms of agnosticism that are incorrect, because they are also too broad in their claims of what they do know: “No one knows or can know if there is a God” (We do not know what others know.) “I cannot know if there is a God” (We do not know what we might come to know in the future.) Seems to me there is only one possible position - the passive agnostic who speaks for himself regarding the present saying, “I do not know if there is a God.” This agnostic is an honest skeptic, and an honest skeptic should still be able to continue considering the possibility that there is a God given the evidence and rationale. Nice discussion. God bless you.

[@CandidDate]

Belief is a matter of utility. If there were heavy thunderstorms on Earth 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days year-round, then I think I would be religious. (and I would live in an underground bunker). But Nature only shows her wrath once in a while, so I guess I'm a "fair weather agnostic." Whatever that means...see, I even doubt myself !!! Truth is eternal.

[@catz537]

I'm agnostic and have been all my life. For me, that just means I do not know if a god exists or not and I will not claim to know. In my opinion, saying "I don't know" is the most honest answer you can give, and anyone who claims they are *certain* one way or the other is not actually certain. There is no possible way to be certain. Also for me, being agnostic isn't just about whether or not a god exists. It's about all of the big, philosophical and existential questions. It's about what happens after we die, whether we did exist somewhere else or as a different being before birth, parallel universes, quantum theory, consciousness, etc. And a lot of these philosophical questions do not have an ultimate answer, at least not right now. Philosophers ask a lot of questions, but that doesn't mean they can answer them fully. And scientists are philosophers too...scientists can get close to the correct answer on a lot of things, but even science isn't perfect.

[@Pfhorrest]

The only kind of "god" that agnosticism is warranted about is basically some kind of powerful alien. The supernatural is logically impossible and so a priori there is no supernatural god beyond the universe; one should be an atheist about god in that sense. That leaves only a "god" that is part of the universe as an option. Presumably this thing that's a part of the universe is intended to be a person, not some abstract entity the belief in which even an atheist wouldn't contest (like "the universe itself"). And not a person from Earth, of course. So what you're talking about now is just an alien. A thing that is part of the universe cannot be all-powerful or all-knowing about the thing of which it is a part, though it could in principle be all good, so you're talking about, at best, a very powerful and knowledgeable and maybe all-good alien. Except that the existence of preventable evils here on Earth demonstrate that, if that alien is all-good, then it's either not powerful enough to fix our problems or not knowledgeable enough to know it needs to. So at best, there might be some omnibenevolent alien somewhere out there who's extremely knowledgeable and powerful, but not enough to matter to us; or else, an apathetic or actively malicious alien that could help us out but doesn't want to. You're free to be agnostic about the existence of that, but just bear in mind that you're in the same boat as all the UFO nutters if you think it's actually plausible and not just "yeah I guess" technically possible.

[@timothymclean]

I'd argue that arguing the truth value of anything based on being supernatural or not is a flawed argument. Part of the problem is that "supernatural" is so hard to define. Either you mean anything not caused by natural laws is impossible (which is tautological and doesn't tell us anything), or anything "magical" is just automatically ruled out before you even consider the evidence. I don't consider gods, ghosts, magic, etc to be plausible, but that's because strong evidence for such extraordinary claims is nonexistent, *not* because they are "supernatural". I'd also argue that the influence of an omnibenevolent alien or group of aliens would be even easier to test for and detect than that of a god; being an alien being which presumably evolved in a similar way to how life evolves on our own planet, there are certain constraints we could impose on their motivations, abilities, etc. The evidence for such potent alien civilizations is, obviously, no stronger than it is for supernatural forces. There are numerous reasons to think that there are no sizable alien civilizations in the observable universe, ranging from the failure of SETI programs to the lack of galaxy-sized smudges of waste heat in the distance. I'd recommend looking at Isaac Arthur's Fermi Paradox series for a better look at this question, and a good explanation for the galaxy-sized-smudge-of-waste-heat thing.

[@Mrsquiggley]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke Im agnostic theist as I believe in the possibility of there being a advanced enough species being essentially deities compared to us. We are God’s compared to humanity 2000 years ago

[@Pfhorrest]

Timothy McLean what I mean by the supernatural is logically impossible is precisely that "supernatural" doesn't mean anything coherent. Saying something is supernatural doesn't tell us anything about it. There's no sense to be made of something not being part of nature, other than if maybe you mean it doesn't exist. Anything that exists is a priori part of nature. So it's possible that the laws of nature are different than we think they are, and things commonly called "supernatural" (like magic or ghosts or god) might exist, but in that case they are not really supernatural. Which is how the concept of "god" boils down to "really powerful and knowledgeable and ostensible omnibenevolent alien". Exactly like how "magic" boils down to "sufficiently advanced technology", where by "sufficiently advanced" we mean "insufficiently understood", and what we're doing right now talking on the Internet is "magic" by premodern standards.

[@Mrsquiggley]

Pfhorrest specific tech that’s essentially magic as science is being able to remove robotic instruments using only your mind, sure there’s a lot that goes into it, but show it to someone from 200 years ago without explaining or providing context and it’s essentially witchcraft, hell even to modern man the fact this technology exists is entirely baffling even to those of us who understands it. This goes beyond the general concept of what is natural and is therefore supernatural.

[@Pfhorrest]

what?

[@jalalsalehofficial]

late to the party but the question of agnosticism comes from me being raised Muslim then being forced to learn Christianity by another parent. Since then I continue to do my own study on as many religions I can. I see many are used as fear tactics to force moralistic lifestyles while also causing an issue of elitism. I live by moral standard from many religions and legal aspects using the best judgement I can.

[@todafett5865]

We are all born agnostic by default.... but theists tend to be the more gullible type

[@notcrackerjack]

Indy J Love you too

[@TeezieMo]

This is such an interesting topic to me, thank you for this video, even after 5-years. Very difficult to articulate such a profound topic. I personally have come to the realization that I am an Agnostic Theist, this is solely based on my own subjective experiences. I definitely still could NOT provide empirical evidence to prove what I have seen and experienced after losing many people over the years, but those subjective experiences have made me believe in the concept of a "soul energy," for sure. This has led me to believe in a type of vast energy field, which I could only describe in human concepts as a 'God.' I still do not think it's possible to prove this though, so I hold firm to remaining Agnostic, yet being more open minded to metaphysical data.

[@corvusprojects]

Christ, that was a painful video to watch. The only thing disingenuous here is that you refuse to call yourself an agnostic atheist, because that's what you ARE, regardless if you disagree with it - because that's the DEFINITION of it. The two terms are mutually exclusive - they actually don't sit on a continuum, because one term deals with BELIEF, and the other deals with KNOWLEDGE. You don't KNOW if gods exist - therefore you are AGNOSTIC. You also don't BELIEVE that gods exist - therefore you are ATHEIST Ergo, you are an agnostic atheist. END OF STORY.

[@j0hncon5tantine]

@Corvus Really at the heart of this and if you go by the original and intended definitions, you are either an agnostic or an atheist, you cannot be both......... God is REAL by the way! (***The biologically immortal organisms that lack senescence are already extremely great proof for God and his design but if you want more..... The 3 main forms of evidence that would be acceptable and legitimate in a court of law for the existence of God would be..... "Life after Death experience studies where people witness a creator God- " iands.org/resources/education/recommended-reading.html " " time.com/68381/life-beyond-death-the-science-of-the-afterlife-2/ ", .......... Multiple Studies on the effectiveness of prayer from multiple religions involving a creator God like in the book "The Divine Matrix by Gregg Braden" " www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_13?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=divine +matrix+gregg+braden&sprefix=divine+matrix%2Cstripbooks%2C195&crid=3BXKVNJABO9OK " along with other such studies proving a positive co-relation, ...... Positive co-relation to prayer in a peer reviewed study.......... jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/485161 ............ and scientific facts mentioned in the Bible before their human discovery by a divine influence, www.eternal-productions.org/101science.html ....... For example….. 1. The singing stars. Job 38:7 declares the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. It sounds like a bit of Bible poetry but not much more. After all, stars shine, not sing, right? Well, it turns out scientists have been able to convert patterns from start light into audio wavelengths, according to Discovery News. The “amount of hiss” in the audio reportedly allows scientists to measure the surface gravity on a star and gauge where it is in its stellar evolution. 2. Weight of the winds. In Job 28:25, we are told that God weighed out the wind. This one may be no more self-evident to us than it was to an ancient Israelite reader of this text. But, we know from modern science that air, since it does have mass, weighs something. You might be surprised to know how much though: an estimated one ton of air is weighing down on shoulders, according to this science site (which explains that we don’t feel it because the air is exerting its force in all directions). This is pretty basic stuff for modern scientists, but it’s quite a credit to the inerrancy of Scripture that the author of Job got it right so long ago (approximately in the second millennium BC). 3. A massive fountain of water deep beneath the Earth!!! Genesis 7:11 "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." www.thesun.co.uk/news/2242110/scientists-discovered-water-from-biblical-great-flood-in-worlds-deepest-hole/ www.express.co.uk/news/weird/733026/Russia-science-Kola-borehole-Noah-floodwater-Bible-Genesis-theory-of-12 creation.com/oceans-of-water-deep-inside-the-earth "Scientists dig the world’s deepest hole - and find ‘water from NOAH’S FLOOD’ at the bottom The revelation also reportedly "disproves the myth" that the earth is made up of dry rocky layers" All these would stand the scrutiny of a judge and jury for the case of a creator Gods existence and the legitimacy of the Christian Faith!!! But I am feeling generous so I will give you two more great forms of evidence, how about this book where a forensic officer who is atheist studies and researches the Bible to see if it proves a historical Jesus and if he was murdered wrongfully? Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels www.amazon.com/Cold-Case-Christianity-Homicide-Detective-Investigates/dp/1434704696, afterward he became Christian!!! Also, why don't you just pray to God yourself and ask him if he is real? What more can I say??? Then you would have personal evidence and proof of Gods interaction yourself..... I mean, there is actually way way way more evidence for God than this but it either would go over your head or you would not understand it properly and you would question it, but this is really solid evidence and proof I have given you up above that would hold up in a court of law........... if you decide to RUN from it, at least admit to yourself that is what you are doing........ Do you believe your life, body, family and the ground you walk on are all a gift or something else? If you believe they are all something else then what do you think they all are then?***)

[@corvusprojects]

bazil bourgeois LOL YOU RAVING LUNATIC. Absolutely zero of what you said is evidence for anything. It was basically a catalogue of faulty thinking and logical fallacies.

[@j0hncon5tantine]

@Corvus I think your face is a logical fallacy............ If you think a study in a peer reviewed scientific journal showing a positive co-relation for the effectiveness of prayer is faulty thinking and illogical then you must not be a very intelligent person......... and please keep in mind that these studies with results like these dwarf the two pro-atheist biased studies that stated that prayer made recovery worst that were both done by the same biased research team......... So what really sells you on atheism?, what evidence or argument are you so in love with that you would deny your creator? And then since you do not believe in God and you want to me or anyone else to be convinced by you then you better start explaining how all this around us works without a God, you need to answer for all the things you believe in that you replace God with like "something coming from nothing and a universe and laws of physics creating itself by itself for no reason and with no cause"(Big bang), "life from non-life"(abiogenesis), "The Earth and Universe being said to be extremely old as a FACT only using timing and dating methods that have never been properly tested and rely on many assumptions about the ancient environments they are dating....", "complex living structures forming themselves"(Chemical evolution), "complex original brand new organs/ body parts forming on their own or in pieces in any amount of time on an organism", "An organism become an entirely different organism in any amount of time through out generations"(Darwins EVOLUTION), " all life on Earth being ancestrally related to each other", and the fact that you believe "that you and I share a family relation to a flea in the distant past"!!! And if you decide to go down this road know that these ideas above are full of holes, assumptions, contradicting scientific evidence, and already deal with outright contradictory scientific proof against these concepts........ your atheism, feigning ignorance, and the made up imaginary assumptions and lies above are just what you use in your head as a foundational excuse to play and pretend at being your OWN GOD who gets to do almost whatever they want............... Such a large burden of evidence is upon you, I gave you mine so now lets see you give me yours.......

[@corvusprojects]

bazil bourgeois *yawn* I'm not making a positive claim buddy. Therefore no burden of proof. You're claiming something exists, and the BEST evidence you have is an (extremely weak) and blatantly misinterpreted study (yes, I've read it). You are clutching at straws. Now go play in traffic.

[@macblink]

@@j0hncon5tantine wow, go f*ck yourself

[@o.h.a9826]

I'd also call myself agnostic purely for the fact that whilst there is no evidence a god doesn't exist, there is no proof he doesn't either.

[@BumbleBee-eh3cn]

Understand you are sitting on the fence. God is spirit. Might want to read up on Revelations in the Bible. He wins. Good wins. Come to the side of Christ, by asking him to be your saviour and admitting that you are a sinner. Life will be better when you begin to follow Christ.

[@GeoDetective]

I am a Christian

[@sergeyfox2298]

I didn't realize that agnostics, not agnostic atheists or agnostic theists, actually adhere to ancient skepticism. So agnostics merely suspend belief (not assert a truth value to claims "God exists" and "God doesn't exist") until evidence can demonstrate the truth value of such claim "God exists" and it's negation. By this definition, I tend to see myself as agnostic then.

[@chrischow9085]

When you grow up and stop believing in Santa Claus did you also prove the negative? It is still the proposition itself that has the burden of proof and without evidence every single proposition has to be taken as false.

[@ieuanhunt552]

Because you misunderstand the definition of atheist. To quote AronRa. "if you are not absolutely Convinced that an actual deity really exists, you are an atheist"

[@fuzzycat3651]

Ieuan Hunt That is not the definition. Atheism is being absolutely convinced that god _does not_ exist.

[@josephwatson4783]

I find it so highly improbable that the god or gods described by any human writing literally exists that I'm perfectly comfortable with the word atheist.

[@alexisfrost9545]

I'm pretty agnostic. I can't be swayed either way to the existence or non-existence of a higher power.

[@BumbleBee-eh3cn]

Let me sway you. God is spirit. Try praying to him in Spirit and truth. Try looking around and praising him for the many beautiful things in this world that he made. See what happens.

[@conjecturemm]

I'm curious what your grey color value you use is. I use #BFBFBF

[@Soliloquy084]

B3B3B3, 5A5A5A, and 262626

[@daphne7047]

I recommend the documentary series ‘Sea of Faith’ which explores different ideas of what God means. It’s available in full on KZbin (with the endorsement of the writer and presenter Don Cupitt, so I assume it won’t get taken down any time soon). There’s a lot of ideas to be explored, and I find pushing it down to a scale of ‘probability’ excessively reductive.

[@BumbleBee-eh3cn]

God is spirit. He insist we worship him in spirit and truth.

[@treyshaffer]

I basically see this as: You’re an atheist who doesn’t want to be associated with new age atheism and so you call yourself agnostic, as is the case with most people who call themselves agnostic. I know you’re trying to avoid exactly what I just said, but what you don’t understand about agnosticism is that it is an act of actively questioning whether or not some diety (or dieties) exist. Agnostic people may still pray or commit to religious rituals because they are truly 50/50 and unsure about their stance. Given that you live your life as if there is no God, or gods, or spiritual realm, etc. then you are fundamentally atheistic by the nature of your behavior. Another quibble: it’s not that atheists don’t believe in God, it’s that atheists believe that there is no God, and this is a key distinction. Also, even though a very common thing people people tend to say about this argument is that “there is no evidence one way or the other”, which is possibly true, that doesn’t necessarily imply that no stance can be taken on the matter. Purely a-priori arguments can be constructed, not all logical deductions require physical evidence. This is why I’m an atheist, I think fundamentally all burden lies on the theistic claim and as all claims I have been exposed to are very brittle and unconvincing I have maintained my atheism. If a convincing argument were to arise, I would (hopefully) readily accept it given that I was acting rationally, which I don’t necessarily do at all times, but I would ideally be able to do.

[@juggernogaddict7954]

The Burden of Proof lies on believers to prove God, not for Non-believers to unprove God.

[@BumbleBee-eh3cn]

God does not have to prove anything. Check out JOB in Bible. This entire argument plays out. God is so above all of us humans, he does not have to justify himself to any of us.

[@MrGameManIsCool]

Yea , I’m agnostic too , it was mainly because I don’t care , I care about my life I don’t think about my after life.

[@Soliloquy084]

I think it's fine to label yourself what you want but some may say that you are an apatheist.

[@MrGameManIsCool]

Soliloquy yea , I guess you’re right , it’s basically what I’ve been labelling myself agnostic but that makes more sense

[@jm12green31]

Here's what I know... That we as humans know absolutely nothing

[@parkinfurkmaz2877]

Using your definition of agnostic, I would be considered agnostic. But by the common definitions of atheism, I am definitely an atheist too. I'm not sure if your portrayal of atheists is entirely correct, although having believed in a deity previously is likely to influence how you feel towards the term 'atheism'. Atheists can believe in a 'soul' too; in fact they can believe in anything that's not a central unifying vague 'force' of some sort. And also, we aren't antagonistic towards religious people at all! My ex-girlfriend was Catholic and I was (and still am) an atheist. Didn't put a strain on our relationship at all. We often joked about each other's beliefs as well with no hard feelings (I don't think we would have dated if we were sensitive to those issues). In my experience, it is religious people primarily who are the ones to relentlessly convince you of their theism, but even those kinds of people are rare in contrast with all the religious people that I come across. Anyway, a more important question to ask is "What is a god?". You have to be able to answer this before you can meaningfully say whether or not you believe in one. Understand what limitations exist on an idea of a 'god' based on modern scientific research isn't a means to laugh in the face of theists; quite the contrary actually. I happen to study theoretical physics so this question comes into the space every now and then when you consider the unintuitive workings of quantum theory. Scientific study has led us to think more deeply about what a 'god' can do; it answers the question "If a god does exists; what is it capable of and what is it limited to?". Stephen Hawking, who by the way was an atheist married to an avid Christian, said that his (phenomenally groundbreaking) theories did not rule out the existence of a creator, but it did set bounds on how such a being, if it existed, could interact with the world around it. For example, it cannot be able to discern human ideas of morality, or anything subjective for that matter. If it could, we would have been able to physically measure ethics. Hence, if a 'god' does exists it is less like the one in the Bible, Koran, or Torah but more alike Nietzsche's conception of an Ubermensch (Superman). There are also other limitations, like 'god' not being able to produce a left-chiral anti-neutrino, not being able to violate entropy, not being able to perform electromagnetic interactions that violate charge or parity symmetry, etc. So what influence can a 'god' have on the world? At the advent of quantum physics, Einstein (and Fermi and de Broglie and Bohm and Bohr etc etc.) wrote in a submission to the Physical Review Journals that quantum teleportation was problematic to his theory of general relativity; it threatened to contradict his theory and tear apart his nuanced and eye-opening formulations. 80 years on and all experiments support his theory of relativity, but quantum teleportation is still very much a real thing (just to be clear, this is not teleportation in sci-fi movies in case you're thinking that) and it struggles to be reconciled with relativity. Perhaps an unknown force/interaction of some sort could behind this i.e. some conception of 'god'. If god had interacted with the world in an obvious way (like turning water into wine or dividing a sea in two) we would have be able to theoretically explain it through our knowledge of how the world works. But those obvious interactions are the ones most easily disproved (turning water into wine would require a change in those molecules from H2O to whatever constitutes wine, which would mean either spontaneous weak decays or electromagnetic interactions, which would require a controlled drop in entropy, which even if localised would require a much greater increase in entropy nearby, which is not possible). Instead if we are to hold onto any hope of believing in a god, we have to reshape what we think possible of a god so that it doesn't contradict with what we know.

[@cjhudson393]

I agree with this I am personally a agnostic myself

[@kayleighlehrman9566]

I like to say that, because everybody on Earth experiences religion and spirituality in their own unique way, there are 7.5 billion religions in the world. Upon leaving the Church (various non-Catholic denominations had been used by my family for most of my life) I labelled myself as an agnostic; I had had some personal hardships that seemed excessively harsh to be a "plan" of a God who is "testing me," and so I concluded that, if there is a God, that God either doesn't care about us, or isn't omnipotent. Either way, after my suicide attempt and subsequent hospitalization, I concluded that such a God would not be worth believing in, and so I just stopped believing. Currently, I use "irreligious" as my label; I feel like "atheist" simply describes a system of beliefs that have no ("a-") God or gods ("-theist"). That being said, I have in recent years been intrigued by some of the spiritual aspects of neo-pagan religions, and I am genuinely wanting to look into some of them in greater detail. It is entirely possible that I may become a "spiritual atheist" at some point. Edit: this being said, I have absolutely zero problems with anybody who does practice any religion, theistic or otherwise. Along with my personal struggles, I had also felt myself drifting away from Christianity for years before that because of how many Christians I knew who were determined to make sure that everybody else in the world would follow their ideology of Christianity, and I really don't like telling other people what to do, let alone believe.

[@j0hncon5tantine]

Let me ask you two questions...... 1. What exactly about your struggle makes you think it is not a test from God along with what you think that test really is or how it is supposed to be? 2. Do you think giving someone a warning to save them from danger or giving someone helpful advice or guidance is the same as telling them what to do or ordering them to do something?

[@mikeygarcia8271]

Can I ask you something? Can a people become a nation again after having been dispersed in different parts of the world for more than two thousand years? And in the countries where they were exiled, they were the minority and were heavily persecuted. They were not allowed to secure jobs and were often expelled from their lands. And throughout the ages, kings, queens, political and religious leaders tried to annihilate them...do you think they could survive as a people? Could they become a nation again, much less become a powerful force in the region when they get back from exile? Considering they are a small country, as small as New Jersey with the land mostly dessert, surrounded by enemies who wanted to annihilate them and with hardly any natural resources that even Mark Twain in his diary said that even cactus were having a hard time to grow in this arid, bone dry and dessicated land ? What do you think?

[@mslfbreezy]

I consider myself a spiritual agnostic. My 1st religion was catholic, then my mom studied with Mormons and then Jehovah witness. Religion is not for me but like learning about different religions and philosophies. Sometimes people ask me how I can be spiritual if I’m not religious. Others think agnostic is the same as atheist but it’s not. I don’t mind explaining to others what an agnostic is. More of us should share and teach others what we believe in.

[@ZacharyDietze]

It’s incredibly sad that we even have to *explain* what being an agnostic means. Not having any biases for assuming if there is an afterlife and God or not should be common sense. It’s simple to just say that you *want* there to be such things, rather than saying that there is or isn’t, since there’s no way we can prove it either way as long as we live. That doesn’t make me a heartless person, it just means I’m being more realistic with what we have to go off of. If anything, I wish I *wasn’t* agnostic since being one makes me afraid of what could happen to me and other people after death, assuming that anything even could or couldn’t. But to be blissfully unaware with you being a complete atheist or into a religion just makes you much more ignorant in general. (Not saying that *everyone* is, but in most cases, most of either sides are) And as a former Christian myself, I wish that more people can have more of an open mind. I dunno man, sometimes it makes me wonder if the general person can even comprehend the idea of being in the middle or grey of things at all to begin with… let’s say for one scenario God *does* exist though and is somehow 100% proven, what created them? Another infinity amount of creators? And if they were always there, what stops the universe from always being there? See, it doesn’t even make any sense, it always comes back to infinity, so regardless if there is or isn’t one, you can’t escape the unknowable when ideas like this are far beyond our comprehension to begin with.

[@jgage2344]

Nice amount of word salad ,all of it using the term agnostic wrong …. No one is just agnostic… Agnostic describes knowledge not believing! You are an atheist or a theist ,and then your knowledge of those make you agnostic or Gnostic! Let’s say for another scenario you read a book and use the terms correctly!

[@ZacharyDietze]

@@jgage2344 I know what I said. As mentioned I am a former Christian, so I definitely have read most if not all of it. I was even in a private school once for several grades that was prominently Christian and we had to study the Bible for actual school work. Nonetheless, in retrospect I am highly skeptical of religions in general, but I am not an atheist because I am not convinced that there can just be no God or creator of the universe. If anything, I'm slightly leaning towards the probability of there being a God rather than not, but at the same time none of us can prove it one way or another. That does not mean I am an atheist... here's a dictionary definition of +gnostic from Googling the term: "a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God." Which 100% aligns with my beliefs. This definition is a fact, not an opinion. Sorry.

[@mrfreddorenton]

Is "Posh as beanbags" better or worse than "Posh as cushions"? On the spectrum of belief; I'm a non-denominational theist - I believe in a creator or creative force, but that no major religion has been able to encompass or even describe it. I haven't been able to study all religions, but not even Zoroastrianism stuck with me.

[@hkntns]

I call myself agnostic because I DONT KNOW

[@hkntns]

Yeah agnostic theist puts it right.

[@bille7359]

I like to think of it like this; religious people ( I’ll use Christians as an example) say that, depending on how you lived your life, you’ll go to heaven or hell. This would mean that after death, your soul would live on forever. This is the same for most religions and explains / proves that you’ll live on after death. But ( correct me if I’m wrong) if the soul is eternal and has existed since the beginning of the universe, if you don’t remember those first 13 or so billion years before you were born, whose to say you’ll remember the next 100 trillion or so after death. Please note that I’m am not bashing anyone for their beliefs or point of views and I’m happy to read your opinions / arguments to what I’ve said. Again, I’m not bashing any personal beliefs, if religion or lack there of is what gives your life meaning and is what makes you happy then that’s great. This is simply my opinion on the matter. Thanks :)

[@mikeygarcia8271]

Can I ask you something? Can a people become a nation again after having been dispersed in different parts of the world for more than two thousand years? And in the countries where they were exiled, they were the minority and were heavily persecuted. They were not allowed to secure jobs and were often expelled from their lands. And throughout the ages, kings, queens, political and religious leaders tried to annihilate them...do you think they could survive as a people? Could they become a nation again, much less become a powerful force in the region when they get back from exile? Considering they are a small country, as small as New Jersey with the land mostly dessert, surrounded by enemies who wanted to annihilate them and with hardly any natural resources that even Mark Twain in his diary said that even cactus were having a hard time to grow in this arid, bone dry and dessicated land ? What do you think?

[@omginever]

I will identify myself as an atheist, although I completely subscribe by the view brought forth by Timothy McLean in his comment. Still, it is really interesting how you define your position, I think the religious influence and formulation of basic definitions of good/bad, and material/transcendental during your childhood heavily affect your position. I was raised in a non-religuos family, practically, my parents are agnostic, but I was interested in religions since I started speaking, and until this day I can not find any reasonable argument for why God is even relevant. As Timothy pointed out, if it is something that has no measurable effect on the real world, and thus does not influence your existence in any way, the concept of God becomes thoroughly irrelevant to the daily lives and cultures. I understand that ideas of life after death, an eternal soul can be comforting, but so are other ideological predispositions. If you believe that your legacy (even in the form of your video) is contributing to expanding boundaries of knowledge for many people and thus contribute to the "greatness of humanity", it can bring much comfort to your existence. In fact, I believe that many atheists do find this ideological "fix" for their anxieties about death relevant. But in the end, it does not really matter, whether you live your life "well" and leave a children and positive legacy behind or murder millions of people, you will end up with a black screen in the end, as your brain slowly decomposes. I don't find this idea depressing or uncomfortable, it is just how the world is, from all the evidence I can examine. It really gives you a lot of freedom and much deeper satisfaction from living, as you enjoy every moment in your life while it lasts. Referring back to the ideas of improbability of your or my existence, I think it makes life even more fascinating: you are brought about through abiogenesis, which occurred on a planet on the outskirts of an ordinary galaxy, by chance, a bacteria swallowed another bacteria (what became mitochondria), making possible the existence of energy-hungry multicellular organisms, which, through series of bizarre and unlikely events led to development of mammals to the modern apes, and even then you only had a one in ten (or a hundred?) million chance of being born because you won the competition among spermatozoids, you then got lucky by being born in an age, where most children actually survive to their adulthood, because centuries ago your chances of survival through first 20 years of life were minimal. This is what makes life a pleasure and a privilege, and not the fact that after your physical death you will end up in some disneyland for adults, ran by a cool human-like dude in the parallel dimension, which does not even make any sense, since it drives so heavily on your existence in the real world. Does eternal pleasure or suffering after death even mean anything if all the pleasures and sufferings you have ever experienced have (demonstrably) purely biological basis and are worth something precisely because they are limited?

[@Soliloquy084]

It's interesting, my family is and was non religious, and I've never been a man of faith. My only exposer to Christianity was really during high school.

[@DulceN]

Bravo!

[@la5830]

I feel like I’m a 3 on the spectrum. I believe that we don’t know for sure if there is a god until we die and we don’t know what happens when we die and I think that any faiths/lack of faith could be accurate.

[@matthewtenney2898]

Okay. First of all, we don't consciously choose our beliefs. Beliefs flow naturally from what we have chosen as our goals in life. Beliefs are the assumed truths that we must have in order to live the life we want to live. From our infancy, we have had the goal of finding happiness and usually that means little bits of happiness such as a "thank you" or some other affirmation or approval. There is a part of our human nature that demands that our lives be worth living and so we tell ourselves (by force of threatened suicide) that those little bits of happiness make life worth living. And of course, we give others little bits of happiness to encourage them to do likewise. The human paradigm is to live for our happiness and we can't even imagine doing otherwise. To change from a self-centered paradigm to a God-centered paradigm is so dramatic that Jesus compared it to being born again. Evidence plays almost no part because we will simply select, interpret, fold, spindle and mutilate all evidence until it fits our own paradigm. We cannot be honest judges of evidence. Seeking God is only for those who see the need for God just as seeking a cure for a fatal disease is the natural course of action for those who have that disease. But if you have no need for God, you will interpret my need as a defect in my being.

[@naturalisted1714]

Oblivion after death is nonsensical if one is a naturalistic atheist, because it implies that there will be no experience after this one ends, but we know (if we're consistent with worldview naturalism) that there will be experience/consciousness after this one ends -- as other consciousnesses will continue to exist after this one ends, and new ones will begin (via births of living sentient beings). So instead of your end being followed by "oblivion" or "nothingness", it will be followed by the exact same thing the last time you didn't exist was followed by: a Subjective experience! It was the process of a sentient organism's birth that caused the consciousness that's reading this right now -- after it hadn't existed... And we know that the process of sentient organisms being born will continue to occur after you die... And death is equal to "before birth"... And so, the same thing happens again. This is because only experience is experienced... "Consciousness is always present for itself" as Tom Clark put it. This is what's known as Generic Subjective Continuity. It's worth your time looking into.

[@LastBastian]

Someone else's consciousness is not your consciousness. Obviously. Therefore you make no sense. My consciousness ending (i.e. "oblivion") is in no way negated by some other consciousness coming into existence elsewhere.

[@Medusa109-g9t]

I don't know If I'm a Christian or Catholic. This uncertainty grows when my parents both fights about Christianity and Catholicism. My wish is I don't want to be one of them.. what can I do? Any idea?

[@sarahjane8754]

I'd say I'm closest to agnostic. I was raised Baptist Christian but I never had any extremely strong convictions. I started questioning as an older child and at 14 I stopped calling myself a Christian. Since then, my lack of belief in a god has mostly been based off the Abrahamic god; I haven't explored many other religions. I'm not very into science, nor am I very interested in the origins of the universe, so I cannot even hypothesize for myself how we got here. Overall, I am skeptical of the complete rejection of a higher power or higher existence because it is something nearly every society in the world has had explanations for. However, I also do not believe in any gods who created the entire universe and force humans to worship them otherwise they will sent them to an imaginary fiery pit. I believe that humans are inherently limited in their potential to understand a limitless universe and/or a limitless god if there is one. If there is ever 100% proof of something that I could see, then I would believe whatever that was, but I think that even me asking for proof as a human is pretty dumb. My capacity to understand proof of a limitless god/deity system or scientifically limitless universe is limited because neither would have any obligation to be understood by me. I don't know, I'm happy taking the world at face value. All I strive for is to be kind, honest, appreciate beauty when I experience it, and to learn what I can. I'm just a person, that's all any of us are.

[@timstanford995]

I am a Christian but see your point. Too many Christians are like Atheists. They have no experience and still are totally sure about what they believe