What we can honestly say we know (3of3)

This was my speech to the Atheist Community of Austin on 04/03/2011. There were several technical issues which were not all resolved. My own camera was accidentally turned off before-hand, so this isn't even my video. Their projector would not read my primary laptop either. So I used a spare which did have an earlier copy of the presentation, but did not have all the necessary slides on it. Then there were 60 or more people crowded into one room of an old historic building with no air-conditioning, so the atmosphere was quite sultry. On top of all that, the topic was one not likely to win me any friends in that audience. So it wasn't a really good day.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• American
• Atheists
• Atheist
• Community
• Austin
• Des
• Moines
• ACA
• Dillahunty
• Silverman
• billboards

[hollaboutit]

@viicISrotcib we are all capable...the conditions are varying.

[pat5168]

I'm an Agnostic Atheist, I don't know whether there is a god, but no evidence shows there is, so I have no reason to believe it. Simple as that.

[maikeru01]

I wasn't happy about those billboards either. I saw a video where the president of the atheist association (i forgot the exact name of it. maybe it was american atheists alliance?) who erected those billboards tried to rationalize his choice of words, but I have always thought it was terrible PR work. Not only did he deliberately offend christians around christmas, he did it by demonizing us in a way that isn't true and can only hurt our image. what was that billboard supposed to accomplish?

[XGralgrathor]

« the two are identical in many circumstances »

They may be used along side one another, or they may be interchanged in everyday vernacular, but to know indicates an experiential justification or at least verifiability that to believe does not.

Other than that, knowledge basically is a justified or justifiable belief. That's the short version anyway. Philosophers have written many thousands of books on the subject of what knowledge is.

[arkee71]

@CrossTheGrigori keep in mind though that the single most important thing in human evolution ..in fact the thing that separates us from any other organism that has ever lived is...imagination....logic and science did not pull neanderthal far enough to make it...imagination is why you are breathing now...not logic

[arkee71]

@XGralgrathor the two are identical in many circumstances...many thesaurus will in clude know as a synonym for believe ..i agree with aron on most things except he posits that one cannot know something unless they arrive at that through reason...im saying there is another way...instinct

[XGralgrathor]

@arkee71

used that way, "to know" becomes equivalent with "to believe".

[arkee71]

the word know can be broadened however to include that which i can intuit...this is what the christian is feeling ...an instinctive draw to the eternal...its not really "god" in the christian sense...but its not really beyond "knowing" either ..is it?...i would argue that there is a higher knowledge...but no book can provide you with it

[hellhammerz666]

I'm very glad you adressed the agnistic/atheist semantic misconception. It's astounding how many people criticize atheism without even knowing a proper definition of it....

[inday811]

@CrossTheGrigori ambot nimo. go to hell and speak to your own kind.