[quote=zk]
Show me where I insisted that there is absolutely no god or higher power, CA renter. You can’t do it, because I’ve never said it. In fact, I’ve said many times, even on this blog, that no one can be absolutely certain of anything. I’ve also said that we need a new word in English to describe people who don’t “believe” in god, but who aren’t absolutely certain there’s no god only because they understand that they don’t know enough about the universe to be absolutely certain, but who see, based on what they do know of the universe, that the likelihood of god is so infinitesimal as to be easily and completely dismissed from consideration. If I hold a clump of dirt in my hand, could it really be gold? Yes. Some trick of the universe (or Goldie) could be making it look and feel like dirt to me, and it could really be gold. Am I going to mortgage my house and buy a new Maserati and hope to pay for it with this gold? No. Am I going to accuse anybody who does that of wishful thinking? Yes. If the existence of god is as likely as that clump of dirt actually being gold, am I going to base my life on belief in god? No. Am I going to believe in god? Only if I trick myself into it. Which I can’t/won’t do. Is somebody who believes in god intellectually inferior to me? Depends what you mean by “intellectually.” Are they inferior in their ability to see reality as the evidence presents it rather than how they want to see it? Yes, I think they are.[/quote]
I think that agnosticism covers that definition with the understanding that this would include a spectrum of beliefs that range from “I don’t know anything for a fact but believe strongly that there could be a god/higher power” to “I don’t know anything for a fact but am strongly convinced there is no god/higher power.”
And there are many people who were/are not having delusions or seeing hallucinations, either. You can’t claim to know about what you haven’t seen/experienced yourself. What many have seen/experienced is no less real than what you’ve seen or experienced. (Just so you know, I’m not talking about seeing Jesus Christ in a potato chip or a rainbow.)
And, no, having spiritual beliefs does not make someone intellectually inferior to their atheist peers. Science has never proven that god or a higher power doesn’t exist, so I’m not sure why you think that it has. If anything, it has only shown us how little we know about the universe.
I think this would be an interesting read. I’ve not read it yet, but based on the description, it describes how I feel about the divide between skeptics and believers.
