Debate user Null on if agnostics should have to pick a side

[Claude Sigma]

Minutes from the latest Mad at the Internet show at 2:28:10 :

I've always hated the term "agnostic". I feel like you should have to pick a side. If you don't think that there is a God, then you should say "I'm atheist, I don't think that there is a God", you should just say that.
The term "agnostic" was the beginning of the end. Once people starting saying that they were agnostic, you opened the door to pansexuals and non-heteronormatives and polyamory because once you can just invent a special term to say that you're not sure, that you're not convinced that there is or is not a God, then that was when you had to have a special term for every stupid thing in the entire world. That was when society died, was when we started tolerating those agnostics.
They're disgusting. I can't stand them. Make up your fucking mind. Don't be proud that you're uncertain, that you don't know what the fuck is going on.

Should agnostics be forced to pick a side between believing and atheism? Should fence-sitting on the most important religious question be considered cringe and socially shamed?
It doesn't matter if you literally do not know if there is a God or not, you should choose a side and stick to it. Or so argues @Null .

 

[Bogliacci]

Go drink a dr pepper you agnostic son of a bitch

 

[Hitchhiker]

Most of the reason people say they're agnostic is because if they say they're atheist it's going to piss off their religious friends or family. They should have to pick a side though instead of pussy footing around.

 

[Something Awful]

No, people shouldn't be forced to pick a side. I know nothing about migration of shorebirds in Australia, nor does it particularly affect me, so I don't think it's cringe that I don't voice a definite opinion on it. I mean, for me it's just atheism with a reasonable dose of humility acknowledging that there are many things I don't know and I could be wrong.

 

[Claude Sigma]

Most of the reason people say they're agnostic is because if they say they're atheist it's going to piss off their religious friends or family

It might be true in very religious places like red America and muslim countries but in most of Europe no one cares if you're atheist, and yet plenty of people still choose to call themselves agnostics instead of atheists.

 

[Die Oberste Direktive]

I've made religious-curious posts on here before so I won't act like some authority but I do believe most agnostic people are just irreligious or areligious or apatheists, whatever you want to call them. Atheists are in active defiance of God's existence, while I think due to a lot of cultural and societal change a lot of people just don't have religion in their lives, positive or negative, they just don't care, and that's what most agnostics actually mean when they self-identify as such.

 

[Anne Hyroe]

I think the pansexual analogy works better than with the people who say they’re “spiritual but not religious” who are almost always insufferable.

I also think lots of people started saying they were agnostic rather than atheist so they weren’t associated with the cringe “I fucking love science” crowd.

 

[3MMA]

Claiming atheism is claiming a group membership, as is Christian and agnostic. Buddhist, Shinto, all the paganisms and various denominations. Iirc, agnostics originally had a specific set of beliefs, not just a catch all (modern use of an) identity label ascribing any meaning to terms that mean specific things. OP sounds like it’s describing a vendetta against a misuse of agnostic. I never quite understood agnosticism deeply, but you don’t have to pick atheism over christ worship. Religion can change too, at any stage of life.

 

[Sexy Senior Citizen]

If, in this moment, you aren't euphoric, are you really an atheist?

 

[Zetsubou]

Agnosticism is mostly just Reddit intellectualism. They always say crap like "atheism implies there is no god while I mearly believe that I am unsure of one existing!"...which is a very long way to say you don't believe in a claim because you lack faith in it.

Just say atheist like damn, you're either an atheist or a theist. Answering don't know to the survey is objectively the funniest answer though.

 

[batterybee]

I've always found people who consider themselves agnostic are much more sociable and normal than people who consider themselves atheists, the latter seem to be self important redditors that think of themselves as a profound thinker lmao.

 

[David Brown]

Funny that coming from @Null when he's terrified to elaborate on his religious views at all in public.

 

[Shig O'nella]

Should agnostics have to pick a side?

No, that's fucking retarded. "Dunno and don't really care" is a perfectly legit answer. The fact it upsets spergs is a bonus, nothing more.

Dumbass binary thinking strikes again.

 

[Begemot]

No, people shouldn't be forced to pick a side. I know nothing about migration of shorebirds in Australia, nor does it particularly affect me, so I don't think it's cringe that I don't voice a definite opinion on it. I mean, for me it's just atheism with a reasonable dose of humility acknowledging that there are many things I don't know and I could be wrong.

Nah, pick a side, coward. Do you prefer breeding season migration or non-breeding season.

 

[Autistic Mushroom]

There is no meaningful distinction between the two. You either believe or you don't. Atheism already covers the "I don't know" and "I don't care" bases. Agnosticism fundamentally says nothing unique.

 

[Bone Santa]

>"I'm agnostic"
>refuses to elaborate further

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

They don't have to, but then God will decide for them.

 

[Gan Ying]

I'm not an expert by any measure, in fact, I'm a retard, but I've always thought that agnostic is an adjective that you have to attach to Atheist or (your flavor of) Theist, and you can't just be "agnostic." You can be an agnostic Atheist, who doesn't believe in a god but isn't sure if one exists or not, or an agnostic Theist, who doesn't know if God exists but believes all the same out of faith rather than due to knowledge. Then on the flipside you can be a gnostic Atheist or Theist, who is utterly convinced that they KNOW beyond reasonable doubt of the existence or nonexistence of the divine.

 

[Shig O'nella]

I'm not an expert by any measure, in fact, I'm a retard, but I've always thought that agnostic is an adjective

No.

It's from the greek: a - a negation prefix, gnosis - knowledge or knower. It is a noun that literally means "Doesn't know."

 

[Pilgrim of Grace]

Agnosticism is mostly just Reddit intellectualism.

And what about before Reddit existed?

Just say atheist like damn, you're either an atheist or a theist.

That black-and-white thinking and forcing people to identify spiritually--as some tag that satiates your autism--is par-the-course for the site you mention previous.