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[challenge entry] Okay, he's an atheist, strictly speaking...
(Apologies for TOAP, but I suspect many of the entries will be...)

From the Uxbridge English challenge. See all 639 entries (closed)

(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 1 May 2008, 10:56, archived)
# I think he's pretty much the opposite of a gnostic.
(I helped save b3ta! Afinkawan Yes I can hear you Clem Fandango, Thu 1 May 2008, 10:59, archived)
# I think its supposed to be agnostic
which he isn't either
(I helped save b3ta! WHTRZ Corp dosen't like the sound of Rupert watching porn, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:01, archived)
# Yeah, I did say he was atheistic, strictly speaking,
...but then can anyone name a famous agnostic?
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:02, archived)
# Yes.
Loads of people can.
(I helped save b3ta! wheelybird mreee!, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:04, archived)
# Okay, what about somebody
who's famous for being an agnostic?
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:08, archived)
# Bertrand Russell
Charles Darwin,
Mark Twain,
Albert Einstein.

And so forth.
(I helped save b3ta! wheelybird mreee!, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:12, archived)
# Gaaaah!
Okay, yes, they were agnostics. But it wasn't the thing for which they were principally famous - Russell possibly excepted, and I don't know enough about Twain. Dawkins has, of recent years, become famous for being a militant atheist. I can't think of anyone who's done the same for agnosticism...but then I suppose "militantly agnostic" is a bit self-contradictory.

/runs out of hairs to split
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:17, archived)
# Indeed.
It's difficult to go out and successfully promote uncertainty.

I would say that Darwin would count as a famous promoter of agnosticism, but not as much as his make Thomas Huxley who actually coined the term.
(I helped save b3ta! wheelybird mreee!, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:28, archived)
# Einstein used to repeatedly try to factor god into his theories.
I would scarcely call that Agnostic.
(Jeru War and Piss, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:18, archived)
# Is that actually true?
The "God does not play dice" comment re. quantum mechanics was not an admission that he believed there was a deity involved - he was just being poetic* and it was taken out of context.

*And there, of course, is the problem, because no one expects physicists/mathematicians/patent office clerks to be poetic...
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:24, archived)
# I believe it was just near the end of his lifetime when Quantum theory started developing when he started working on his own unifying equation which factors in space for a god.
He obviously didn't literally write god into his equations, because that would be mathematically bizaare. I think this was just a short time before he died, so he obviously didn't finish it.
(Jeru War and Piss, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:31, archived)
# This isn't strictly true.
His theory of god was more of a 'energy in the universe' style thing at the most, and his talk of it is often misinterpreted.
Don't forget how religious American society was (and still is). It's always been hard in that country for successful people to openly doubt god.
(I helped save b3ta! wheelybird mreee!, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:25, archived)
# Well if you read some of what he had said, he frequently says he is an agnostic
but because he doesn't believe in a god of fate and control that interferes with Human's existence, but he still says he believes in the old intangiable gassy sky beast.

Also as Bertrand Russell questioned whether he was an atheist or an agnostic to my memory, the area is generally a fuzzy one. Because people generally determine the difference by agnostics not being able to have proof that god doesn't exist and thus having no conviction of it, but at the same time I can't prove conclusively that there aren't giant intangiable floating teapots in my room - doesn't mean I am inherently unsure about this fact though.
(Jeru War and Piss, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:39, archived)
# i don't believe in Richard Dawkins
woo
(I helped save b3ta! lordsaccharine b3taing is well retro mate, Thu 1 May 2008, 10:59, archived)
# As an atheist,
I find this offensive. You have insulted my prophet and defiled blah blah blah.

*burns embassies*
(I helped save b3ta! wheelybird mreee!, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:01, archived)
# As another atheist.
see above reply. If this satisfies you, then let us dance happily round a burning embassy together.
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:04, archived)
[challenge entry] hehehe woos!!!
im just going to leave this here: -

Photobucket
(I helped save b3ta! Sir T. Skellington, Thu 1 May 2008, 11:02, archived)