Agnostic and Atheist are Mutually Exclusive Terms

  I  find myself perplexed that somehow some people who consider their selves to be atheists are actually agnostics who are enamored by the term atheist.  The situation is so bad that there actually exists an agnostic group devoted to trying to educate people to the fact that you can't be both. I have been known to speak of using "atheism" as a pick-up line.

    I first became aware of this when I wrote somewhere ( I suspect it was for a paid article) something about atheism vs. agnosticism.  I suspect that it was on my google plus account (as I think about it at the moment).  Perhaps the discussion came from my article about the end of the question of Rationalism vs. Empiricism in the 20th century due to the work of Einstien  (both  in quantum mechanics and General Relativity) and the work of Kurt Godel, especially the incompleteness proof . ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems)

    I have been looking back over my blog, trying to find the article on Rationalism vs. Empiricism, and it appears that I didn't quite write the article.  I wrote part of it but never got back to it. That was due to all the problems I had over the last year.

     Let me get back to that subject, as it is very similar and relevant to the Atheism vs Agnosticism argument.  Both topics suffer from Newspeak.  I may be stretching that term a bit, but it seems relevant to me.  The terms have ancient well defined meanings.  Some people try to change the terms to suit their sloppy thinking.

      Rationalism is a system of thought which is predicated on the belief that all Truth can be derived using logic from certain a priori facts aka  axioms. Further, such truth is considered to be only real Truth.
Most of you will be familiar with Rationalism in the form of Euclidean Geometry.  Euclidean geometry will work fine laying out a football field or building the next Hoover dam.  But it becomes evident that there is a problem with it when you start trying to calculate the orbit of the planet Mercury, or use satellites for precision surveying.  The reason so much effort and expense is spent on verifying The General Theory of Relativity * is that it settles the question, especially when  applied to "space". If you're trying to send a probe to Pluto. you'd better be able to predict the position of your probe and Pluto many years down the line.

     Empiricism says that any geometry used for real space must be derived from verifiable, measurable observations. General relativity postulates that gravity has the effect of CURVING space.  This effect can be measured accurately during total solar eclipses by measuring the apparent positions of stars close to the image of the sun. General relativity also accurately predicts the orbit of Mercury, and predicts that  atomic clocks in orbit around the earth will appear to run slowly.
    My experience with modern day atheists is that they are very inconsistent with their definition of atheism. They SAY that atheism is anything other than specific Christian beliefs, but in practice they mean the blind faith axiomatic belief in the absence of any type of consciousness not directly derived from life forms, whether human, other animals, or even plants. Rocks, for instance, are not considered to have awareness.
 
























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Difficult Times

Just wanted to comment that I (and my surviving son) , have been going through difficult circumstances recently after loosing our family home due to a sleazy mortgage company. No need to post details, we are surviving. I would appreciate any prayers (God knows His/Her name and hears all prayers).

Comment on Giles Goat Boy

   I just randomly thought about a book, Giles Goat Boy, which I read as a freshman at William and Mary in honors English. I looked it up on the internet and was surprised to see that it gets mixed reviews . Remember, this was in honors English at William and Mary. Need I say more?
  I am even more impressed with the book in retrospect.  I do have to admit that the one thing that most impressed me was that Barth spent over 💯 pages laying out the pun about George's gorge

Politics In Desperate Situation

     I have been very stressed out recently by political situation and have added to stress by debating with self-styled atheists.  In addition, I am having financial problems.  I really need to write a blog about Quantum consciousness.  I re-did some stuff on my computer and had trouble getting back to this blog, will try to write the article I need to over next few days.  

Why I Speak of President as "Donald"

   Just very quickly I want to make clear that when I speak of the current president as "Donald" I am using the convention of referring to a child by first name.  Yes, that is the basis of the Old South  practice of referring to some people (colored folk, for instance) by first name.  Yes, "white trash" was also spoken to that way.  And I have repeatedly said that the Trump family gives "white trash" a bad name.
    I know some very good people (such as Partons) who give "white trash" a good name.  I was raised to NOT use that convention, except in circumstances where it would risk lives of good people.  One older "black" man once told me how he went to the back door when visiting white friends so that he wouldn't get lynched and his friend's house get burnt down.

Sagan, Einstien, and Me on Atheism

   One thing I have become aware of is that self styled atheists use different definitions of atheism depending on to whom they are talking.  I agree with both Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein on defining an atheist as a person who believes that there is no god (god in the very broad sense).  Einstein (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein) had an early Catholic education, despite being Jewish.  He said that a Jesuit priest would consider him to be an atheist, since they considered anyone not Catholic to be an atheist. ( https://owlcation.com/humanities/Einsteins-Religion-Theist-Deist-Pantheist-Humanist-Atheist).
   Specifically, I use the widely understood meaning of atheist as a person who believes that there is no god.  An agnostic is a person who claims to not know.  The phrase "'agnostic atheist" is an oxymoron.  "An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid."   http://philosophiesofmen.blogspot.com/2012/01/atheism-is-very-stupid-carl-sagan.html

poem, 22 July, 1974

 

While strolling
          Down the beach
     I happened
                Upon a shell,
And years later
       I found a poem.