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

[gcomeau]

177. No, explaining how you screwed up the question...

...is the answer.

The theism/atheism question is asking about the presence or absence of a belief. So if you want to construct a valid analogous question you need to make it also about presence/absence. So you ask if I "POSSES pride in X", not if I am proud OF X.

"Proud Of" is a state of mind that is subject to a massive variety of gradations that rely on individual interpretation in order to make the determination if what you feel actually constitute being "proud of" a thing. Sure there's probably some amount r degree of pride there but is it enough to call it being "proud of"? Subjective call.

As opposed to simply asking if someone possesses any pride in a thing which is a binary Yes/No condition. You do or you don't.


Similarly, returning to the actual topic at hand, you can ask about types or strength of belief and those are matters of different degrees of gradation... but they are also IRRELEVANT to whether you possess the belief at all.

And POSSESSING the belief is what makes you a theist. NOT POSSESSING the belief makes you an atheist. Binary condition. Two options. No others.