<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">I'll respond by explaining, briefly, my own atheism.</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">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.</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">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."</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">I believe that I exist. If I "know" anything, I know this.</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">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.</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">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."</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">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.</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">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.</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Many claims I neither believe nor disbelieve, but merely acknowledge. This includes any claims regarding the origin of the universe.</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">All of my beliefs, excepting the belief in my own existence, are provisional. I happily modify any of them.</span> <br>