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Truth be told I probably sit so close to you two that this debate isn't really that important. If I mustered up enough of the anti-god arguments I have come across I could probably convince myself to take the atheistic position on god as commonly conceived. Some rough outlines would be...

I don't take a position of agnosticism on matters where it seems as though I have sufficient evidence, e.g. I believe myself to exist and I believe myself to be sitting in front of a computer. Edit: also, you can find evidence for negative facts (even negative existential facts). For example, I...

Aye, in the past, as you would know, I have agree to the philosophical agnostic but practical atheist label. However, I'm not sure that I ever really need to leap towards saying P or Not P because in so far as these magical beings are concerned it doesn't really make much difference whether I...

Interesting link btw. It looks like it's quite a good blog. I'm actually reading one of Daniel Dennett's books on the mind at the moment, so it had some extra relevance for me.

Once again, having no reason to believe that 'god exists' is different to having reason to believe that 'it is not the case that god exists'. Similarly with the string theory case - you have no good reason to believe that string theory is true, but that does not equate to disbelief. What you...

In offhand, naive way I will act as though I am more than agnostic. But once rational contemplation enters the picture I find agnosticism to be a very reasonable position. As with god, as with pixies, as with string theory. I don't think you need to use the same form of agnosticism in all...

Try not to make a straw man argument out of agnosticism - it is not a central feature of the agnostic position that we assign 50/50 odds. That is simply faulty reasoning. In order to make a case for atheism against agnosticism you need to make a convincing argument for the proposition 'god...

If you consider atheism and theism then I reckon you can find a fairly unproblematic minimal agnosticism: A theist believes 'god exists' An atheist believe 'god does not exist' Going in between the two, a minimal agnostic believes neither proposition Note that there are a number of...

Hello. An agnostic position can be much more subtle than that. Some people will claim agnosticism on the basis of the impossibility of knowing either way, as you have pointed out. However, you can also be agnostic simply because you lack knowledge or justified belief in either direction (for...

Like so: As an interesting bit of trivia - the majority of dollar bills in the US bear traces of cocaine.

(1) I am yet to see good reasons presented in this thread. In my opinion all of the following classical arguments can be debunked (hence shown to be unreasonable): The cosmological argument from first cause The anthropic argument from our existence The ontological argument which conceieves...

I've been told that The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell does this in a really interesting way (you can find the whole quartet within one book in the stores I believe).

Let me make the case more strongly: suppose that we think up a class of entities that will only confer their rewards upon you if you a) believe in them, b) worship them for at least one hour each day and c) follow their variant of moral law. You have some problems here: - Firstly, there are...

I don't think that it is too unreasonable to throw up a quote in order to stimulate discussion (I've done as much before, though I'll grant that my posting history probably indicates that I'm likely to engage with the ensuing discussion). In any case, on Pascal's Wager: The central problem...

Chili rocks my socks.

On the quality of their education sure, that's fine, but on the basis of educational institution not really. Similar to the way in which you find variation of any given trait within a particular race you are also likely to find varying levels of talent amongst individuals from any one given...

I'm a sucker for a good bookstore. Kinokuniya, Abbey's and Gleebooks are probably my favourites. While not super cheap the Gleebooks second hand store is great if you're after a discount source of more academically oriented books.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Just to stir up the pot a little I figured I'd toss in a little link between evolution and belief in Adam and Eve. The following passage comes form a book I am currently reading by philosopher of mind and biology Daniel Dennett which makes use of the concept of a...

I assume you mean the UK street artist - why would you hate on him? He makes awesome art. He did some pretty wild, not to mention brave, stuff on the Gaza strip:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4416662163