From: Kennita Watson (kwatson@netcom.com)
Date: Thu Nov 14 1996 - 22:20:01 MST
-E. Shaun Russell:
> Indeed. I think we should have a definition of 'atheist'. I
>consider myself an atheist because I don't believe in a conventional 'God'.
>I am very open to other thoughts however, and the general term of
>atheist has a synonym of 'closed-minded'. Go figure.
Theists claim to know there are one or more gods. Atheists claim to
know there are none. I call myself an agnostic because I claim I
don't know, and a doctrinaire agnostic because I claim that nobody
else can possiblyknow either. But my anti-dogma dogma has its limits.
I spent about 15 minutes Tuesday trying to convince a neoPagan New-Age
* * * *
theist that she hadn't necessarily discovered the * TRUTH * in her 8
* * * *
years of meditation, when it dawned on me that 1) we could go on like this
indefinitely and only raise our blood pressure, and 2) as long as I didn't
make an ego battle of it, what she _thought_ didn't matter as much to the
quality of my life as what she _did_. When that light went on, I said,
"Now that you know all that, what will you do?", and she said (loosely) "My
life's work is now to work with the Habitat for Humanity helping homeless
families build homes for themselves.". Suits me fine, cosmology or no
cosmology. We parted amicably. So I guess I'm a pragmatic agnostic as well.
Kennita
Kennita Watson | The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
kwatson@netcom.com| but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do
| members of the same family grow up under the same roof.
| -- Richard Bach, _Illusions_
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