Timeline for Why would philosophical agnosticism and pragmatic atheism be considered more rational than philosophical agnosticism and pragmatic theism?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
19 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 13, 2023 at 6:50 | answer | added | Corbin | timeline score: 0 | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 17:53 | comment | added | Veedrac | @JeffUK Rationality is about decisions. Empiricism is about evidence. I think section 1 of Logical Induction (just the first part) might clarify this for you. A rational agent needs to reason about uncertainty in general. | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 17:46 | comment | added | Veedrac | @SydneyMaples A rational agent is one that runs an algorithm that attempts to find decisions of maximal quality from the evidence it has. Rational agents don't believe in god, because god is evidently not real, so any algorithm that convinced itself that god exists would not be a strong decision procedure. See section 1.1 of Logical Induction for a discussion of properties that a rational agent should have. | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 16:58 | comment | added | Sydney Maples | @Chelonian I used to be a pragmatic atheist, and am now a pragmatic theist. I am happier than if I were a pragmatic atheist, generally experience more awe (and, hence, feelings of inspiration), get along with philosophical theists and philosophical atheists (the latter by nature of being philosophically agnostic myself), and use pragmatic theism to channel and direct love towards people. As a philosophical agnostic, I do not involve any notion of God in my intellectual life or personal goals. If my goal is to maximize utility, pragmatic theism is the rational option for me. | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 16:36 | comment | added | Chelonian | @SydneyMaples, so just a follow-up: So, you'd consider spending a lifetime of thinking about, feeling toward, and acting in terms of--all of which require taking time out of your life to accomplish--something for which you have no evidence a rational use of one's time? | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 16:32 | comment | added | Sydney Maples | @Chelonian Sure, there are irrational beliefs. A pragmatic theist doesn't need to abide by strict religious beliefs. They can believe there is probably a God, but be generally agnostic. In the sense that they are pragmatically theistic, they may be inherently spiritual, or they may go to Church, pray, etc. They could be agnostic or disbelieving of the validity of certain principles, such as celibacy. I don't think that the existence of irrationality in religion makes all pragmatic theists irrational. On balance, I think that pragmatic theism may bring more utility than pragmatic atheism. | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 16:13 | comment | added | Chelonian | Is there no threshold for behavior that begins to seem irrational to you when following--that is, pragmatically implementing--a specific theistic belief? For example, is tithing rational absent evidence? Celibacy? | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 15:41 | comment | added | Sydney Maples | @JeffUK thanks, updated the post. hopefully I made things clearer | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 15:41 | history | edited | Sydney Maples | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added information
|
| Apr 3, 2018 at 15:20 | comment | added | JeffUK | @SydneyMaples Could be useful to start with defining "Philosophical Agnosticism", "Pragmatic Atheism", "Pragmatic Theism" and "More Rational" | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 15:19 | comment | added | JeffUK | @Veedrac I think you're confusing empiricism and rationality, rationality is entirely interested in things that can be shown to be true through logic and reason. Empiricism is interested in things that HAVE been shown to be true. | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 15:08 | comment | added | Sydney Maples | @Veedrac could you elaborate on your point? For the reasons stated in my post I don’t see why it is necessarily more rational for an agnostic to act as an atheist instead of a theist | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 15:05 | comment | added | Sydney Maples | @JeffUK that’s fair, which terms would you like me to define? I’m using the terms from the post I linked to. I’m under the assumption that philosophical agnosticism and pragmatic atheism just means that you are an agnostic at heart but you act pragmatically as an atheist | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 10:52 | answer | added | Chris Degnen | timeline score: 2 | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 10:18 | comment | added | JeffUK | I think you're going to have to define those terms before we can give you a good answer. | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 9:18 | comment | added | user3017 | God is more than capable of making Himself known to those who seek him through humility and repentance. Not only that, He has also promised to do so. | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 8:37 | comment | added | Veedrac | Because rationality isn't about finding out what can be true, it's about finding out what's actually true. (More specifically, it's about acting on what's actually true.) | |
| Apr 3, 2018 at 7:26 | history | edited | Sydney Maples | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 45 characters in body
|
| Apr 3, 2018 at 7:06 | history | asked | Sydney Maples | CC BY-SA 3.0 |