I do not agree that if you doubt this belief in the slightest to go about life only believing as a safety net, that makes you agnostic. Which stated by the philosopher William L. Rowe, being is agnostic means neither believing nor not believing in God, he refers to this as a doctrine. I do not believe that you can claim to be all in with something so serious to so many people, because you don't truly believe this could be true. Which does not mean people can not still believe in Heaven and Hell and have questions about their faith. Everyone should question what they believe in sometimes, I think having questions just means you want to know more. But again, "believing" just in case doesn't really "keep you safe" God knows if you're not truly accepting him into your heart.
Many philosophers live a religious life style, like William James for example. For my second post, I will be going deeper into why I believe in Heaven and why many other people believe this too. Also, the comfort people find in Heaven especially. I really want to know what everyone else thinks about life after death as well so I can have a better understanding.
http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2017/12/sad-post-about-death-and-dogs-9.html?m=1
ReplyDeleteAnna Morgan
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I think your view on agnosticism is really interesting. I have never thought much about it and the way you described it, "having one foot out" really resonated with me. I think it is important for one to know where they stand, and if they are not sure then to ask as many questions as possible.
Agnosticism is not "having one foot out," it's having neither foot in OR out with respect to any final conclusion on a subject the agnostic deems beyond human resolution.
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll give a bit of attention to why some of us find the concept of hell immoral. Bertrand Russell put it this way:
"There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment... I think all this doctrine, that hell-fire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty. It is a doctrine that put cruelty into the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture..."
-Why I Am Not a Christian https://users.drew.edu/jlenz/whynot.html
And, I hope you'll also consider alternative conceptions of an "afterlife" than the Christian heaven. See Samuel Scheffler's book "Death and the Afterlife," for instance.
You have some very interesting ideas about religion, for example the idea that God will know whether or not you truly believe in him. An all knowing deity would or at least should know this, so simply saying you believe in him wouldn't be enough.
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