Is there a point in being Agnostic? -- LiveWire Teen Forums

Quote: from Moridin at 6:08 pm on July 7, 2009

Quote: from Forever Angel at 1:42 am on July 8, 2009
Quote: from Moridin at 5:27 pm on July 7, 2009
It is a direct logical implication from that definition. If I claim that I have no knowledge about the existence of god, I am stating that it is not the case that the god-concept is meaningless. If the god-concept was meaningless, it could not refer to anything that exists by definition. But to hold that god-concept as meaningful, you would have to be able to assign it primary qualities. But if you can do that, you obviously have some knowledge about the existence of god.
Understanding the concept of god(s) is not the same as having knowledge of the existence of god(s). And it's that understanding that probably leads the agnostic person to believe that that knowledge is unknowable.

I find this to be a very interesting argument worth further exploration. I'd like to ask you the following question: how is it possible to understand a concept (that is, assigning primary qualities to it), yet hold that it is in principle impossible to acquire knowledge? If something has primary qualities, it is by definition possible to corroborate or refute this in principle (although of course not always in practice).

It's not that hard to develop a concept. Proving, or even providing evidence, that the object of that concept is actual or imaginary is quite different.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/g/god-west.htm

Western concepts of God have ranged from the detached transcendent demiurge of Aristotle to the pantheism of Spinoza. Nevertheless, much of western thought about God has fallen within some broad form of theism. Theism is the view that God is unlimited with regard to knowledge (omniscience), power (omnipotence), extension (omnipresence), and moral perfection; and is the creator and sustainer of the universe. Though regarded as sexless, God has traditionally been referred to by the masculine pronoun. Concepts of God in philosophy are entwined with concepts of God in religion. This is most obvious in figures like Augustine and Aquinas, who sought to bring more rigor and consistency to concepts found in religion. Others, like Leibniz and Hegel, interacted constructively and deeply with religious concepts. Even those like Hume and Nietzsche, who criticized the concept of God, dealt with religious concepts. While Western philosophy has interfaced most obviously with Christianity, Judaism and Islam have had some influence. The orthodox forms of all three religions have embraced theism, though each religion has also yielded a wide array of other views. Philosophy has shown a similar variety. For example, with regard to the initiating cause of the world, Plato and Aristotle held God to be the crafter of uncreated matter. Plotinus regarded matter as emanating from God. Spinoza, departing from his judaistic roots, held God to be identical with the universe, while Hegel came to a similar view by reinterpreting Christianity. Issues related to Western concepts of God include the nature of divine attributes and how they can be known, if or how that knowledge can be communicated, the relation between such knowledge and logic, the nature of divine causality, and the relation between the divine and the human will.

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"God does not play dice" - Albert Einstein
"God does play dice" - Stephen Hawking

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