[Vision2020] Note to Donovan: Here's some convincing testament.

[Chasuk]

I'll respond by explaining, briefly, my own atheism.

Everything is a belief. There is no knowledge. To say that I "know"
something is merely to say that I believe it with a high degree of
certainty.

I don't know that I am sitting in front of a computer in South Korea,
entering text on a keyboard, communicating with you via the Internet. I
don't know that my cute poodle puppy, Licorice, is sitting beside me.
However, because I believe these things with a high degree of certainty, I
refer to them -- in general discourse -- as things that I "know."

I believe that I exist. If I "know" anything, I know this.

I know that I like chocolate. I know that Christina Ricci is more sexually
appealing to me than Angelina Jolie. I say that I "know" these things
without hesitation, and without qualification. After all, they are matters
of opinion, and matters of opinion never require empirical proof.

On the other hand, not all "knowledge" concerns matters of opinion. Some
concerns questions of fact. A question of fact has a "yes" or a "no answer."

The existence of Yahweh is a question of fact. He either exists, or he
doesn't, and my opinion is irrelevant. I lack belief in the existence of
Yahweh -- or other gods -- because I have no reason to hypothesize him/them.

All of the claims that I believe with a high degree of certainty are claims
that 1) interest me enough to have investigated their probability,  and 2)
are supported by non-trivial evidence.

Many claims I neither believe nor disbelieve, but merely acknowledge. This
includes any claims regarding the origin of the universe.

All of my beliefs, excepting the belief in my own existence, are
provisional. I happily modify any of them.
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