Hooray! We’re number… uh…
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008*counts* NINE! We’re number nine!
Scientologists are number ten.
And, hey, Methodists are number one. I used to be number one! Woo!
Via toomanytribbles.
Tags: Atheism
9 Responses to “Hooray! We’re number… uh…”
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Merry: Agnostics? Pfft! Fence-sitters, the lot of them!
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JB says:
April 20th, 2008 at 9:46 amWhat about Jewish atheists?
With some of these groups, it is difficult to discern whether one is talking about the group or the institution. I have nothing but contempt for the Church of Scientology, but I have sympathy for those whom I consider to be exploited by the organisation. In the case of atheism, there is less of a clear organisation (unless you count American Atheists and the like, which most people know nothing about and with which most atheists are not affiliated in any way).
I suspect that Methodists and Jews do so well because you are less likely to see the media treating any particular offensive people as spokespeople for those groups. Meanwhile, any idiot who claims to be the voice of “evangelical voters” is treated as being a genuine authority.
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Hey, I’m an agnostic!
And well, yeah, this fence does hurt my ass.
No, seriously, I don’t know how all you folks can be sure enough of anything to officially “believe” in it, whether it involves the existence or non-existence of a God. I’m not even sure I exist.
I don’t think agnosticism is fence-sitting as much as a refusal to be drawn into guessing games about things we can’t really know.
Crabby McSlacker’s last blog post: Out of The Basement and Into the Streets
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Crabby: I run in some pretty pedantic circles and I have pedantic definitions of “atheist” and “agnostic” as a result of it.
“Theism” is a positive belief in a god. Anyone who lacks this belief is, therefore, an atheist. It doesn’t require a positive “I believe there is no god” statement, just a lack of a positive belief in a god. Which means I count people like you as “one of us” regardless.
An agnostic is someone who does not claim to have any absolute knowledge about the existence or non-existence of god. To have that kind of knowledge would pretty much require a divine revelation of some sort, which makes nearly all intellectually honest people (even theists) agnostics. Thus making the term relatively meaningless from my perspective.
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I run in some pretty pedantic circles
Chicken girl, chicken girl, tsk… (shakes head) if you run around in circles you’ll never get anywhere!
Though you will be in pretty good shape when you get back to the starting point.(Yes, I do tend to write silly comments when people go around making statements that I have to think about, like that one above. It’s too early in the morning; I need more caffeine if I’m going to be doing any of that thinking stuff.)
Merry’s last blog post: Out of The Basement and Into the Streets
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Merry: As luck would have it, there’s actually a post from the atheist blogosphere today going into a lot more detail about this subject.
For when you get your caffeine fix.
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Oh, okay then! I guess it’s a question of definitions. I just believe in my own ignorance, which is all I can really be sure of.
Well, that said, my official religion is Crankyism, but it doesn’t really address any pesky questions about Gods or anything. Just cupcakes, which are worshipped at appropriate times.
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April 17th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Ha! As I suspected. Those Methodists are trying to take over the world…
Okay, I’m kidding. Some of my best friends are Methodists. I’m glad you’re ranked above Scientologists, but what happened to the poor Agnostics?
Merry’s last blog post: No wonder they were popular in prison