Philosophical Vegan Forum

Hello, I just saw Atheist being in the option in the religion section, would it have been better to have it separately since its not really a religion lol.
Its not a big deal but just a suggestion.

That would pretty much over complicate things. Similarly, veganism is not a diet, however diets is an easy category to put it in,

I realized that when I put it in, but there is no elegant way of achieving it. The purpose is just to have an idea what the person we are conversing with believes.

You could change the option to "None (Atheist)", which is more correct. (also for agnostic)

As for "Diet"; I don't really have a solution. Diet is generally what we mostly care about as vegans since that's where most of the suffering lies. So I think it's fine for simplicities sake to use "Diet".

The question is of course whether people are confused about it, and whether this will make it even more confusing for them, because it is technically incorrect / not covering everything. But then again, they should have done their research.

Great idea Volenta, I second that. "None (Atheist)"

Volenta wrote:You could change the option to "None (Atheist)", which is more correct. (also for agnostic)

Good suggestion, but I still think we should distinguish agnostic from atheist. How about "unsure" for agnostic.

Good suggestion, but I still think we should distinguish agnostic from atheist. How about "unsure" for agnostic.

I thought being agnostic just means that you do not know whether or not God exists?
I don't know that a god doesn't exist, but I don't believe that one does because of lack of evidence.
Wouldn't that make me an agnostic atheist? Can't you be both?
Can't you also be an agnostic theist/deist/etc.?

EquALLity wrote:

Good suggestion, but I still think we should distinguish agnostic from atheist. How about "unsure" for agnostic.

I thought being agnostic just means that you do not know whether or not God exists?
I don't know that a god doesn't exist, but I don't believe that one does because of lack of evidence.
Wouldn't that make me an agnostic atheist? Can't you be both?
Can't you also be an agnostic theist/deist/etc.?

You either believe there is a god or you don't, there's no middle ground really. Agnostics do not believe there is a god, therefore can be categorized as atheist. Atheism is not the belief a god does not exist, it is merely a rejection of the claim that one does. Agnostics do reject the claim there is a god, just not with certainty. We could add "unsure", but I think agnosticism is a subset of atheism.

miniboes wrote: You either believe there is a god or you don't, there's no middle ground really.

There is definitely a middle ground. There are many people who answer "I don't know" to the question of whether there is a god.

"If being agnostic means that you don't know whether or not a god exists, couldn't a person with any belief be agnostic?" (This was what I was saying.)
Unless it doesn't mean that.
Can't a theist also say that they don't know that God exists, but they believe that he does? So they are an agnostic theist?
The only people who can be gnostics are people who "know" if a god exists.
This is what I was saying agnostic means, but then it goes on to say that atheists claim to know that there is no God, so, blah.