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Atheists & Agnostics
In reply to the discussion: Agnostics are not Atheists and they deserve their own forum. [View all]frogmarch
(12,251 posts)44. Maybe DU needs
a David Berlinskiesque agnostic group. EDITED TO ADD
(Wiki)
David Berlinski (born 1942) is an American educator and author of several books on mathematics. Berlinski is a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, the hub of the intelligent design movement. A critic of the theory of evolution, Berlinski is an agnostic and refuses to theorize about the origins of life. He has also written on philosophy and a variety of fictional works.
...
A 2008 Slate magazine profile by Daniel Engber characterized Berlinski as "a critic, a contrarian, and by his own admission a crank [...and] zealous skeptic, more concerned with false gods than real ones."[12] In that same article Berlinski said he "got fired from almost every job [he] ever had" before finding a career as a writer as a "maverick intellectual." Engber characterized Berlinski's viewpoints as:
Berlinski's radical and often wrong-headed skepticism represents an ascendant style in the popular debate over American science: Like the recent crop of global-warming skeptics, AIDS denialists, and biotech activists, Berlinski uses doubt as a weapon against the academyhe's more concerned with what we don't know than what we do. He uses uncertainty to challenge the scientific consensus; he points to the evidence that isn't there and seeks out the things that can't be proved. In its extreme and ideological form, this contrarian approach to science can turn into a form of paranoiaa state of permanent suspicion and outrage. But Berlinski is hardly a victim of the style. He's merely its most methodical practitioner."[12]
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Would you accept the opinion of the guy who invented the word to desctibe himself?
dmallind
Jul 2012
#11
No - he's stating that agnosticism is in fact nothing to do with belief. Atheism is not mentioned.
dmallind
Jul 2012
#14
He mentioned atheists in the sentence just before your quote started
muriel_volestrangler
Jul 2012
#66
Albert Cat, perfect response to pure and utter rubbish being spread here by cowards who hide under .
Brewinblue
Jul 2012
#87
I believe something exists when there is evidence of that somethings existence
michael811
Jul 2012
#6
Sure - so what's your beef with atheists again? (definitions matter - or what about blurgelpibs?) nt
dmallind
Jul 2012
#84
Being an atheist who's accused of being part of "just another religion" is offensive because
valerief
Jul 2012
#56
And now, we can address the initial question, in a better manner than the OP.
dmallind
Jul 2012
#101
"Why is there something rather than nothing?" "Just wait. There won't be for long."
valerief
Jul 2012
#79
By the seed of magical thinking that is planted in most of our heads as children...
redqueen
Aug 2012
#113