Originally posted by Suzianne
So do you believe that people calling themselves "agnostic" are really "atheist" or that they are actually "agnostic"?
You're so eager to always prove me wrong that you always trample all over whatever I say, just to naysay me.
If someone lacks a belief in the existence of a god or gods, then they are by definition an atheist.
Most, if not all, people who call themselves 'agnostics' lack a belief in god/s, and are thus ALSO atheists.
An agnostic is a person who claims not to know if a god or gods exist, and/or claims that it cannot be known
if a god or gods exist. As belief is semi-independent of knowledge [belief is required for knowledge, but knowledge
is not required for belief] there are many different belief states that an agnostic could hold, ranging from believing
that gods do exist, to lacking belief that they exist, to believing that they don't exist. Two of those positions make
the agnostic also an atheist. The third makes them a theist. I know plenty of people who would qualify for the third
category. Who are agnostics, and also theists [Christians in this instance].
What label a person WANTS to use [if any] is up to them, if a person wants to identify as an agnostic then they
are free to do so.
However, if we are talking about which labels correctly apply to that person, they don't get such a choice.
The definition of atheist is someone lacking a belief in god/s. Thus anyone who doesn't believe that gods do exist
is unavoidably an atheist. Whether they like it or not.
Given the number of times that I, and others, have explained this I would have thought you would have understood this
by now.