Why I'm Not an Atheist: The Case for Agnosticism

[gcomeau]

118. Really missing the point.

The dictionary is, yes, the authority on the meaning of words... the meaning being defined as "what people mean when they speak them"

Which is not the point here. At all. I am perfectly well aware of what a large number of people MEAN when they use the word agnostic. They are simply wrong. Period. And the dictionary does not weigh in on that issue.


For example, let's say for the next several decades for some stupid reason millions of people decide they're going to start using the word "Republican" to mean "an invisible magical elf that farts rainbows"

They can do that. If they do it long enough the dictionary will even add it as a definition next to the word Republican to account for the fact that that's what a lot of people mean when they say "Republican".


HOWEVER, if someone comes along and claims to BE A "Republican", and they insist that what they're talking about is that second meaning and not the original "Person who is a member of, or identifies themselves with, the Republican party" I'm going to call bullshit and tell them they're abusing the language, because no they are not that meaning of the word, because it doesn't freaking EXIST. if you try to tell me you're a magical invisible elf that farts rainbows I'm going to say sorry... but no you're not. And if you think you are you're not understanding what you're saying (Or, you should be in a mental institution)


When people say they are an "Agnostic", and then they insist that when they say "agnostic" they somehow mean they occupy some kind of mythological non existent logic space distinct from atheist or theism, I call bullshit and tell them they're abusing the language because that doesn't freaking EXIST. There is no space that is "neither an atheist nor a theist" any more than there is a "2" in binary. So no person-who-is-making-this-claim, you're not that. If they actually are an agnostic, they're that first definition... not the second ridiculous irrational one used by masses of people who don't know what they're talking about.



Clearer?