RE: virus: Agnosticism
Wright, James 7929 (Jwright@phelpsd.com)
Mon, 31 Mar 97 15:27:00 EST
>>Let me start off by saying that I am new to this mailing list, so if
the
topic I am about to bring up has been thoroughly discussed before, feel
free to ignore me. :)<<
Welcome, and best of luck! Most of us are neither hostile nor prone to
biting, so you should be safe (for a while).
>>Secondly, I am about to play Devil's Advocate with you<<
Here you err. This is, after all, Lucifer.com, so we are all in fact
devils, and know our solicitors to be Dewey, Cheatem and Howe!, so you
cannot be our advocates, as this position is already filled. (VBG!)
Second position: We do not PLAY devil's advocate, we LIVE it! (VBG!)
>>The homepage that introduced me to virus implied that there was no
higher power, and that one should not be talked into believing in any
higher power. Isn't that a belief held without proof? <<
No, it is a non-belief (vacuous postulate); it holds that something does
not exist, because it CANNOT be proved. The positive form of assertion is
that "You cannot prove a negative proposition", in that definite proof
would require exhaustive investigation beyond ability to investigate. Try
this on for comparison: "There are no unicorns". True? How do you PROVE
it? (Remember, we found a new order of creatures living on the lips of
lobsters last year, and had to invent a new order of taxonomic
classification to account for it).
>>Furthermore, since you are practicing one of your own sins, but tell
other people not to commit any of the sins, you are being hypocritical
(violation of another one of your sins).<<
See above, we are not believing without proof, we are REFUSING to believe
without proof. We are not hypocritical for not believing, simply
occupying space outside the system of provable/unprovable.
You are not the first to accuse hypocracy, however; you'll have to try
harder than that to offend us! (VBG!)
>> Both the belief in a higher power, and a disbelief in a higher power
are acts of faith. The only ideology that does not violate any of your
sins is agnosticism.<<
You are trapped in a dualistic mode of thinking. Why must one have belief
or disbelief, and not possibly non-belief as indicated above? You have
limited your own options, and seek to limit ours accordingly. Forgive us,
please, if we do not accept.
>> Forgive me if my repeated disclaimers are annoying, but I tend to be a
bit jumpy on mailing lists because most people get violently upset when
you challenge their belief systems.<<
We challenge each other daily, so you should fit right in! Now, how do
you feel about being challenged yourself? Your reply will be eagerly
awaited!
Cheers!
james