Category: religion
06/05/07 05:18 - 54ºF - ID#39535
Agnosticism
There was a book I read last week, the Life of Pi, which came out a few years ago and was supposedly 'A story to make you believe in God', well I of course remain disenchanted with the concept. But the protagonist's attitude towards agnostics were similar to my own, which was a bit startling. He didn't mind atheists in the least, but a life of agnosticism seemed to him to be troubling.
So - is agnosticism just a default sort of mushy thing or can agnosticism be a deeply held position, defensible in its own right? Despite my perhaps overly harsh words, I am honestly asking and have an open mind.
Permalink: Agnosticism.html
Words: 181
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: photos
06/03/07 04:47 - 80ºF - ID#39513
Gay Pride 2007
hehe... (e:Terry) (top) and (e:James) (bottom):
(e:Paul) and (e:mike)
(e:puppy)
(e:James), (e:Paul), (e:Terry) and (e:Matthew)
(e:Terry) and (e:Matthew)
standing around
(e:Mike) and (e:Dave) (?)
Permalink: Gay_Pride_2007.html
Words: 54
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: photos
06/02/07 05:46 - 86ºF - ID#39503
#94 - estrip party
I didn't take many photos...
Permalink: _94_estrip_party.html
Words: 11
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: buffalo
06/01/07 04:31 - 80ºF - ID#39495
Artvoice
Does anyone know what she can do to get in touch with someone over there who will make this right?
Permalink: Artvoice.html
Words: 39
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: buffalo
05/31/07 12:47 - 84ºF - ID#39477
Urban Roots
Also (not at Urban Roots), found this crazy cool watermelon 'Moon and Stars' - this is what it actually looks like:
Permalink: Urban_Roots.html
Words: 37
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: estrip
05/30/07 03:09 - 83ºF - ID#39458
Feature Request Textile or Markdown
I'd love to be able to format my posts with either Markdown or Textile:
You can make things *bold* or _italic_ or "linked up":http//example.com really easily.
Permalink: Feature_Request_Textile_or_Markdown.html
Words: 43
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: internets
05/30/07 01:14 - 80ºF - ID#39455
PinPals
But the site is full of homo-erotic imagery and is sort of bizarre, especially this page: in which a gay man with a nipple ring is in prison reading the Turner Diaries.
Now, I am not sure if you are familiar with the Turner Diaries, but it is basically a white power manifesto.
Something strange is happening here.
Permalink: PinPals.html
Words: 94
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: photos
05/26/07 09:54 - 61ºF - ID#39412
Unpacking
The only part of the house that's done... the rest is still a mess.
Moving all our stuff makes me realize how cheap (e:james) and I are. We got all our furniture at thrift stores or used. It doesn't look too bad... a little threadbare maybe, but we spent less on all of our furniture in the whole house then some people spend on a couch.
It does take a while to look around and find just the right things though, so that you don't look too much like poor college kid ;)
Permalink: Unpacking.html
Words: 94
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: photos
05/23/07 12:46 - 81ºF - ID#39387
Before
The 'after' pictures will be up sometime this weekend - these pictures are before we started painting or anything.
Permalink: Before.html
Words: 41
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: life
05/15/07 01:59 - 67ºF - ID#39284
God just killed Jerry Falwell.
Permalink: God_just_killed_Jerry_Falwell_.html
Words: 3
Location: Buffalo, NY
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Here's what gives me hope: I think that a common sense reading of the Bible is more likely to lead to humility, generosity, and justice. That stuff is all through the Bible. So if the "bad religion folk" read it long enough, it might start to work on them a bit. At least that's what happened to me.
I define my own beliefs (and the things that I am unsure of) as a basis and a framework for my actions.
For example, I value welcome. I was taught to welcome by my family and by my faith tradition. I need to be reminded of that call to welcome, and reinforced in that call to welcome, because, to be frank, most of the time, it is easier to blow a person off.
I define my beliefs because if I did not, I would simply fall into a pattern of always doing what is easiest, and that isn't really good for me or anybody else.
That being said, I find it extremely interesting that yesterday over breakfast, Lauren and I had this very discussion about Agnosticism.
I consider myself agnostic, though I can definitely say it is not for lack of soul searching. There are copious quantities of religions in this world, and even more sects of each. Who is to say which is the most authentic? I would never stand before you and tell you that this is the way it is, and this is the way it is not.
I will, nevertheless, stand before you and tell you that I do not know.
I think that is the power of religion for myself: the ability to put faith in that which I do not know. Because there is a lot that I do not know. And there is even more that I do not know that I do not know.
Why do we always have to define how things must be?
Faith implies belief. Atheism is a doctrine of disbelief by definition - I see them as mutually exclusive. Believing in nothing is not believing at all.
Since atheism is a system of disbelief, I can hardly see how it could be pro-active since denial of the existence of God implies skepticism by default, in my view anyway. I'd be interested in hearing a bit of an extrapolation on how you see atheism as a pro-active thing (e:UCSF).
The Judeo-Christian religions shouldn't have an exclusive monopoly in this county on how "faith" is defined. It is a perfectly good word that isn't limited to only stuff religious.
To me, "show me the money or go away" is more an "agnostic" statement than anything else. If God or Gods doesn't exist, to whom or what exactly is that statement addressed to? And for that matter, who or what is supposed to go away?
Yes, I agree that healthy skepticism is a good thing. And I, personally, think that Atheism require faith. I think any position that posits the existence or non-existence of God or God or deities, etc require faith.
Apparently, I see Atheism as more pro-active than you do. Skepticism is a reactive sort of thing. And thus, Atheism based upon skepticism is reactive. I think that Atheism affirms the non-existence of God or Gods or deities, while you seem to think that it negates the existence of God. Talk about semantic madness.
As always, I could be wrong.
I disbelieve in God, yes, and that makes me an atheist. That does not mean that I have proof or know more then anyone else, but I am not the one making any claims that would require proof. I don't need to have faith about anything relating to God or non-God. Atheism is not about saying 'I know that there are no gods', and to characterize it thus is totally missing the point and trying to make false equivalences. Atheism is just saying, show me the damn money or go away. Healthy skepticism is the watch word, not faith.
To me, objectively, there is very little difference between the statement "I know that there is a God" and "I know that there is no God (Gods, deities, etc)" There is no way to prove or disprove either statement. One can only say that the evidence points one way or another. At best, atheism is a theorem however useful - we can choose to live our lives as if there is no God, Gods, deities, etc. But in the end, atheism is act of faith in the Non-existance of God, Gods, deities, etc.
To me there is a big difference between saying "I can't prove that God, Gods, deities, etc exist" and saying that "There is no God, Gods, deities, etc."
But that is just me. As always, I could be wrong.
As my mom put it once- the difference is that an agnostic would not sell his soul to the devil, but an atheist would.
A friend was trying to convince me of Intelligent Design a while ago, which I have a hard time swallowing. But he boiled it down to "the world is too amazing and complex to be TOTALLY random. there must be SOME force behind it." Not so much on day one god made this and that and formed women out of bones and virgin birth and water into wine, and all the stuff I just can not believe- but, almost like the movie Contact- the universe is a pretty big, amazing place, how do we know there's not something out there bigger than us. [and i am not going to get into multiverse theory now.]
And frankly, that starts to shake my foundation. So I stop thinking about it. ;)
sorry, totally rambling. :(
There is plenty to make a man agnostic. It can be a sensory inability to detect god, or logic and reason can take you to this point. And that is cool.
Our culture has been most influenced by religion, and indeed all cultures have. I hate turkey. But I ate it for years because it is the cultural flesh of Thanksgiving and America. In the same way, people are religious because they grew up religious. They dig Christmas.
Agnosticism can be, as Drew said, fence sitting. I feel as if people declare themselves Agnostic because they do not deeply examine their lives and how god may or may not fit in their.
Religion, because it is so cultural and such a matter of faith, it is really easy to just throw your hands in the air and say 'I don't know' but with most other issues it just wouldn't work. Abortion? Beats me. Yankees fan? I dunno. Agnosticism is the faith of those who can't decide what to have for dinner, what shirt to wear with those pants.
Of course, many people of faith who never examine their professed religion suffer from the same indecisiveness and a wonder people don't have more restless nights.
I always think of agnosticism as sort of the default (although for many people belief is presented to them in such a way that it becomes the default for them).
In some ways, I really like agnostics, because they have an open mind, and they are humble enough to admit that they might be wrong.
On the other hand, agnosticism seems in some ways to be fence sitting, if a person professes to be such a person over an extended period of time.
I suspect lots of people remain agnostic, however, because saying that they do or do not believe would lead to some conclusions that we would rather avoid.
Therefore, I think that believers/athiests tend to have a bit more courage. If they can state that they do/do not believe and yet still remain humble and open, then its the best of both worlds!
Sadly, only a few people can do this--I like the end of Dogma, when they talk about whether they believe. I won't put it here, in case it would spoil it for somebody.