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To: Vaquero
I too am a non believer(not sure believer????) of Christian(RC) descent. I do not call myself an atheist as I do not believe I can know with any more certainty than those of faith can know that, as a demonstrable fact.

Keep in mind there's more than one variety of athiesm. "Weak" atheism is simply a lack of faith in a deity: "I have no belief in a God or gods, but I do not affirm that it or they do not exist".

Whereas "strong" atheism is a positive affirmation: "I assert that there is not a God or gods".

I subscribe to the former, not the latter. Actually, ignosticism might describe my thoughts on the matter more accurately:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignosticism

Ignosticism is the view that a coherent definition of a given religious term or theological concept must be presented before the question of the existence or nature of said term can be meaningfully discussed. Furthermore, if that definition is unfalsifiable, the ignostic takes the theological noncognitivist position that the question of the existence or nature referred to by the term, for the given definition, is meaningless.

14 posted on 12/08/2013 9:07:16 AM PST by Kip Russell (Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -- and miss. ---Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Kip Russell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignosticism

Ignosticism is the view that a coherent definition of a given religious term or theological concept must be presented before the question of the existence or nature of said term can be meaningfully discussed. Furthermore, if that definition is unfalsifiable, the ignostic takes the theological noncognitivist position that the question of the existence or nature referred to by the term, for the given definition, is meaningless.

I've seen some entries in Wiki (like yours) that discuss "ignosticism", but the dictionaries don't have the word.

"Ignostic" appears to be a coinage by analogy with Latin words like ignarus ("ignorant") and ignotus ("unknown" *, "obscure"), in which the i-/in- is the same privative prefix, in Latin, that the Greeks have as a-, as in apteros, "wingless" ("Nike Apteros") and numerous other words indicating the absence of something. The Greek "privative a" is really the Indo-European (and Latin) prefix in- meaning "not", as in Latin insalsus, insipidus (both mean "tasteless"), and the Germanic/English prefix un-.

Therefore "ignostic" really = "agnostic". The latter is the correct form.

* "Unknown" and ignotus are both descended from the same Indo-European roots and are therefore congeners, the same morphemes in different daughter languages, much like "two" and duo.

67 posted on 12/08/2013 2:54:17 PM PST by lentulusgracchus
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