The Default Position

Welcome to "The Default Position." I hope you enjoy your time here and find that, at the very least, this blog is informative.

In this blog, I will attempt to analyze beliefs and the claims of the religious, and whether or not they hold any merit. One thing I will attempt to point out in many of my arguments geared towards religious claims is that it is proper to withhold belief in a proposition until it is proven reasonable. In short, it is the "default position" to lack a belief in a claim until there is reasonable proof to show the claim is viable.

I will begin my first post by defining some words I will be frequently using. First, I will refute the commonly held misconceptions between "agnosticism" and "atheism." It should be pointed out that gnosticism refers to knowledge and theism refers to belief. Being an "agnostic" is not a milder form of being an "atheist." These terms are not mutually exclusive, and I will elaborate on this.

To be agnostic is to "not know," and to be an atheist is to "not believe." Please note, that atheism does not mean "belief there is no god," but rather "no belief in a god." You can use gnosticism and theism terms together. You can be a gnostic theist, meaning you believe there is a god, and you "know" this as a fact; an agnostic theist, meaning you believe there is a god but you don't know for certain, or think that such knowledge is unknowable; a gnostic atheist, meaning that you do not believe in a god and "know" that there is no god; or an agnostic atheist, where you do not believe in a god but you do not know for certain there is no god, or believe that a god would unknowable.

I, as many atheists, am an agnostic atheist. I do not believe in a god, but at the same time I do not claim to know that there is no god. Now, does agnosticism towards the existence of gods mean that every claim about a god is equally feasible? Of course not. As Richard Dawkins has said, I am agnostic to the existence of gods just as I am agnostic to the teapot that might be orbiting Mars, or the fairies that live at the bottom of the garden. I don't know for certain that they aren't there, but I know that it's fairly likely that they are not.

I hope I have effectively explained my position on the existence of a god or gods. In the future, I will tackle subjects on religion, theology, spirituality, and the supernatural. I hope to show that, just like in all other fields of knowledge, the default position should always be to withhold belief until it is shown that the proposition is viable.