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From: tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: The Evil Media (Skepticism)
Message-ID: <487@cmu-cs-k.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 24-Jul-85 01:41:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-k.487
Posted: Wed Jul 24 01:41:11 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Jul-85 00:17:51 EDT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, Networking
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Xref: linus net.religion.christian:926 net.philosophy:1842

Several people have taken issue with my statements about skepticism,
journalism, and atheism.  With all due respect, I feel that these objections
stem from a lack of comprehension of skepticism.  Atheism is a valid
skeptical position, not a dogmatic one.  Or perhaps I should say that it can
be: certainly there are dogmatic atheists around.

A true skeptic is skeptical even about his or her own beliefs.  She or he
never places a 100% certainty on anything, and does not believe in absolute
truth or falsehood.  To say "There is no God" for a true skeptic is
equivalent to saying "I think there is probably no God."  You see, a
skeptical position demands that ALL statements be treated as false until
they are proven to be true; and even then, only a provisional judgment of
truth is rendered.  This says nothing about the statement's absolute truth
or falsehood, poorly-defined concepts that should be treated with skepticism
in any case.

In short, anyone who says either "There certainly is no God" or "There
certainly is a God" is NOT, NOT, NOT a skeptic.  On the other hand, someone
who says "There is no God" and understands that this is simply a provisional
judgment based on possibly inadequate information, like every other human
judgment, IS a skeptic.

Agnosticism is redundant for a true skeptic.  If it isn't clear now why this
is, then it never will be.
-=-
Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University, Networking
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