Agnostics and atheists are as different as Catholics and Protestants are. Which is to say for the purposes of good statistics, not very.
Adding people who believe in a God but not necessarily any particular God in the same group as people who believe in no God at all would be akin to saying Hindus and Christians belong in the same group.
This is bad statistics. It’s value hacking to get a desired result.
They were commenting on gnostics being combined with atheists and agnostics. Not agnostics.
The first comment stated that atheist, agnostic, and unspecified gnostics were lumped together. They are saying that unspecified gnostics are radically different from the other two.
In my personal experience, this really depends on the context. Most of the time what you say is true. However they are as opportunistic as anything else. If you are discussing things that point to the division of sects as a weakness, or how demographics don’t stack up to other because of the division of sects (like in this article), suddenly they are perfectly fine with every other sect being the same religion.
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Agnostics and atheists are as different as Catholics and Protestants are. Which is to say for the purposes of good statistics, not very.
Adding people who believe in a God but not necessarily any particular God in the same group as people who believe in no God at all would be akin to saying Hindus and Christians belong in the same group.
This is bad statistics. It’s value hacking to get a desired result.
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You misunderstood what they said.
They were commenting on gnostics being combined with atheists and agnostics. Not agnostics.
The first comment stated that atheist, agnostic, and unspecified gnostics were lumped together. They are saying that unspecified gnostics are radically different from the other two.
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You thought they misunderstood what agnosticism was. You were wrong. It’s okay.
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Two toddlers who hate each other getting mad when they’re put in the same group does not mean they’re not the same.
If I asked a Protestant and a Catholic in my country they’d certainly say they’re part of the same religion.
In my personal experience, this really depends on the context. Most of the time what you say is true. However they are as opportunistic as anything else. If you are discussing things that point to the division of sects as a weakness, or how demographics don’t stack up to other because of the division of sects (like in this article), suddenly they are perfectly fine with every other sect being the same religion.
Ask a very devout US Catholic if they believe in evolution or the Big Bang. Their views are aligned with the Protestant-derived churches around them.