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Discussion » Questions » Religion and Spirituality » What is an agnostic anyway, if not just another fence riding neutral?
Benedict Arnold

What is an agnostic anyway, if not just another fence riding neutral?

Very few things annoy me more than a dirty neutral.
This is The guy that takes no position but sits by the sidelines and waits for the fight to be over before he takes sides.
To me this guy is nothing but an opportunist lazy bum who doesn't want to be disliked by none.
I have considered myself an agnostic for a long time. I mean, there's no way of knowing if there's a God. So, in a way,  Ive come to realize, im kind of sitting on this fence, waiting for someone to bring me proof. Until then im not saying God exist, but I can't say it doesn't either. I call it my own brand of "healthy skepticism". 
But I got called out on it the other day. 
How is that not being a dirty neutral? I was asked by someone more smater than I. I was stumped for a second. . .but. . . . ..you know. . Well.. .because it's me . . . Can't be a neutral.. .everybody knows that.
So when I say,  "Well, I have no strong feelings one way or the other, if you show me proof, I'll believe. But if there's no proof, im still not going to say im an atheist,  just in case".  
Question, . . .Isn't Agnosticism just a nice word for being neutral? Just another way to stay comfortably on the side?

Posted - April 6, 2017
Tags : None

Responses


  • In a situation where there is a paucity of evidence strongly supporting a specific position, the agnostic position is a viable option.
      April 6, 2017 9:54 AM MDT
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  • Of course any position would be a viable position. Even one that proposes to have no position at all. 
      April 6, 2017 9:57 AM MDT
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  • 6477
    Well i once got villified for talking about middle of the roaders re Trump.. but that's another story.. Imo being agmostic isn't always fence sitting.. I am neutral about a lot of things, not lazy, not waiting for proof, just don't care that much about some things.. we cannot care about everything... just cant, it's better to reserve your passions for things you do care about .. and agnostic well it means different things to different people
      April 6, 2017 10:36 AM MDT
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  • Im not talking about all the possible and simple daily happenstances. I thought that would be self evident. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at April 6, 2017 11:48 AM MDT
      April 6, 2017 11:47 AM MDT
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  • 6477
    Neither was I but I don't care enough to debate it :P call it fence sittin:P
      April 6, 2017 2:57 PM MDT
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  • 745
    Not necessarily. For some, maybe, but intellectually speaking, it is the most logically-sound standpoint to take in this issue.

    Also, being neutral doesn't always have to imply intellectual laziness, sometimes it's just the one standpoint that makes the most sense. This post was edited by nobodylair.37 at April 6, 2017 5:36 PM MDT
      April 6, 2017 10:52 AM MDT
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  • Agree
      April 6, 2017 11:19 AM MDT
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  • 1713
    Well how can I take a side if I don't really see adequate proof from either side?
    Also, I really don't care all that much when it comes to God and religion and don't feel the need to argue with anyone over it. People can believe what they want as long as they don't go psycho killer crazy over it.
      April 6, 2017 11:14 AM MDT
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  • That's a very good question!
    I usually think of every angle of a question beforehand. But I didn't see that coming. 
    Gotta think about that one for a minute.
      April 6, 2017 11:43 AM MDT
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  • Dear Lago,

    Well then I am prolly even ‘worse’ than you…because I flip atheist/theist/agnostic as the wind blows…depending on whom I am talking to.
    * * *
    Because when we try to talk about ‘God,’ we are actually going to the nature of reality, the meaning of consciousness…and that does not exist as either/or, black/white, yes/no in our usual way of reasoning…which the quantum field theorists are discovering!

    Rather, life is an ongoing process of unfolding.

    So, I suggest you choose whichever label is the most powerful for you at the moment, which leads you to the ever-increasing understanding of the heart-power of love and wisdom.
    * * *
    Truthfully, in my private moments I now have an intimate relationship with what I call ‘God.’ Publicly, however, I like this from Albert Camus (the French Resistance hero who was NOT a fence-sitter). 

    Camus said; “I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist.”

    This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at April 6, 2017 5:37 PM MDT
      April 6, 2017 11:22 AM MDT
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  • Dear Ms V,
    im afraid im not explaining myself right. It is not about my interaction with God or his existence or wisdom or the power of love. 
    It's about the validity of the concept of agnosticism in itself.  
    To me as im coming to understand it, it means that im a neither. If I am a believer then I say God exist, or I say , no it does not.
    It seems to me that the agnostic is using a pretty word to validate a position of nothing. Sort of saying, I don't believe in God, but I don't not believe in it either. 
    To me that's just another form of just being neutral and uncommitted and don't understand how it means anything. Do you see what im saying?


      April 6, 2017 11:39 AM MDT
    1

  • No I am thinking I prolly already DID get it, Lago, and what I am saying is: Do not let yourself be controlled by somebody else's idea of the validity of a concept and its proper definition, and how you are not measuring up properly, yada yada yada.

    Live your own relationship to reality, in your own way, and just let 'em all stew in their own juices.
    ...and you have the right to call it mashed potatoes, if you want to!
      April 6, 2017 12:03 PM MDT
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  • I understand
      April 6, 2017 12:05 PM MDT
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  • I know that your comments come from a good place, and for that I thank you. You be careful Ms Virginia.
      April 6, 2017 2:29 PM MDT
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  • Lago your warning is appreciated but I already got in SO MUCH trouble...equal opportunity hated by both the religious AND the atheists...
    Both can be extremely fundamentalist and don't you let yourself get bullied, you find your own way that makes sense to you.
      April 6, 2017 2:35 PM MDT
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  • Ms Virginia, this is only an academic question.
    I don't care about what this person says or doesn't. I realized agnosticism is a position of nothingness. 
    It made me face my own ideas and once and for all decide on one and quit belly aching for the other.
    And that was not easy. 
    I think Agnosticism is just a nice word that people use without knowing what it means because it's easy, but that really means nothing. 
    And I don't hate you Ms Virginia, I think you are one of only a handful of genuinely nice people around here.


      April 6, 2017 3:34 PM MDT
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  • Oh Lago you are so dear...no, never you...when I mentioned 'hate' I was thinking of the old days of ASK.com, when I would so innocently venture into the religious/atheist flame wars there...getting in all kinds of trouble with both sides...
    More than once Didge would come along and "smooth the waters"...bailing me out!
      April 6, 2017 9:33 PM MDT
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  • That's pretty good, and for a second I thought, Damm, that's true. . .but see that's not the point. Regardless of how illogical the religious position may be,  it is still a position. The atheist has his position as well, the position of the agnostic is defined as being neither of the two. On its own it's a nothing position about everything, I could say the same about Bigfoot. No?
      April 6, 2017 11:28 AM MDT
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  • Lago, your icon has a green dot...if you see this, please I hope it was nothing I said that made you leave?
    I do hope you will return, you are a very fine contributor to AnswerMug.
      April 12, 2017 10:15 AM MDT
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  • When the world was a whole lot younger a workmate asked me what the word meant. I said, "An agnostic doesn't know what he believes." I was kidding, of course, because an agnostic states that there isn't enough evidence to say one way or the other whether a god exists. If a god -- or a sentient creative energy -- did exist, it would not be concerned with the tiny minds of ant-like beings who swarm over the face of one insignificant planet.

    Let's face it: the gods of the world's scriptures act like petulant, narcissistic children and are not to be taken seriously. (Heinlein's thumbnail sketch of God in The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag presents such a god and his reason for creating the universe.)

    No, it isn't a cop-out to say, "I'm an agnostic!" It's a statement of one's position in the debate. 


      April 6, 2017 1:12 PM MDT
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  • And that position is what?


      April 6, 2017 2:21 PM MDT
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  • I must be losing my grip. Copying from my answer...

    "... an agnostic states that there isn't enough evidence to say one way or the other whether a god exists."
      April 6, 2017 2:30 PM MDT
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  • You must be...

    The answer to the question. Do you believe there's a God or not, "there's no evidence either way"

    Maybe im the.one.losing my grip because I don't see how that answers which is exactly the point.
      April 6, 2017 2:36 PM MDT
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  • ha ha Lago and Didge, excuse me I will jump in here to answer Lago's 'what position is that?" question with,
    "I don't think none of 'em know what they are talkin' about."
      April 6, 2017 2:32 PM MDT
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