Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Alphagamuga
Um, going by the words themselves, isn't
agnositic "without knowledge" (meaning you can't really make a claim about the existance of God) and atheist "without god/s*" or "without a belief in god/s*" ?
So, it seems to me that, although agnostic may carry a more positive meaning for believers, it's probably actually wrong to regard it as some kind of sort of atheism lite. Some people know that they don't believe in God, and if they don't believe, they probably shouldn't misrepresent that their position. I think a declaration of "agnositicism" would led to a lot of attempts to convince the new member of religious faith, which I think would be super frustrating to an atheist.
If you know you don't believe, original poster, I'd talk it over with the person in charge of new members or ritual. That person will be able to tell you how much the ideals of the fraternity will be at odds with your lack of belief.
My experience as a Catholic in a group that turned out to have a lot of Southern Baptists was that particular religious beliefs didn't come up that much, but that sharing the same general faith made prayers before meals more comfortable than they would have been for any non-Christian.
(*The wikipedia entry indicated it was from ancient Greek, which is why I'm not capitalizing the G.)
|
I think the "conversion attempt", ever how-slight, will probably happen anyway. As a religious person, I cannot fathom of how anyone can be either, but as an American, I strongly feel that there isn't anything wrong with someone believing as they choose, and I support that right.
It will definately be a call for the fraternity to make, and he may pleasantly discover that they may not have an issue with it.