Since my other arguments don't seem to be clear I'm going to try and show the relationship between (a)gnosticism and (a)theism graphically. The rows show the spectrum of gnosticism and agnosticism respectively, while the columns show the spectrum of atheism, theism, and a neutral state showing that the person has no opinion as to the existence, or non-existence of god. This follows the general form as D&D;alignments so if you're familiar with those then this should appear familiar:
agnostic atheist | agnostic neutral | agnostic theist
gnostic atheist | gnostic neutral | gnostic theist
I've eliminated the pure neutral, neutral atheist, and neutral theist from this scheme for the simple reason that I view gnosticism and agnosticism as discrete states.
You seem to have missed my entire point. I wasn't taking a crack at you anymore than I was taking a crack at myself and the rest of the human race. We are all irrational. To form an opinion without any evidence one way or another defies all logic. That doesn't mean that all of us don't do it. The thought pattern that you described is not internally coherent. If there is not enough evidence to say that a god exists, and there is not enough evidence to say a god does not exist, and if one believes that one cannot know if god exists or not, then to say that you believe that there is no god is not consistent, it's not logical. But we are not defined by, or governed by logic.
All I'm saying is that being an agnostic and forming any opinion about god is inherently illogical.
As I said earlier, Agnosticism is a philosophical description of one's knowledge: we cannot know whether or not a god exists. Theism and Atheism are descriptions of belief. What we know, and what we believe are two separate concepts. I do say that I believe that God exists, but I also say that no one can know with certainty that God exists or not.
It is irrational to admit that you cannot know with certainty whether or not a god exists, but to then go on to say that you do not believe that a god exists. If you cannot know whether or not a divine being exists then logically one would not form an opinion on the matter, when posed the question "Do you believe in a god?" one would simply answer "I don't know." But an atheist would answer "No, I do not." They may elaborate, as you have, as to their reasoning but they have a definitive answer. But humans are inherently irrational, we form opinions all the time without evidence to support our claims. I for one am an admitted agnostic theist, I believe quite firmly that a divine being exists but I also acknowledge that I cannot know for certain whether or not the god I believe in exists because I cannot prove that He exists. That doesn't stop me from believing the way I do.
Agnosticism should not be measured on the same scale as theism or atheism. It's a completely different concept, theists can be agnostic, as can atheists. Atheism and theism are descriptions of what one believes, agnosticism is a description of what one knows. They are too completely different issues.
No, an agnostic simply believes that one cannot be certain that a god exists, or doesn't exist. Agnostics don't say that they aren't sure if a god exists, rather they say that no one can know for certain, that is there is no proof one way or another, that god exists. An agnostic may be unwilling to form an opinion on the matter since absolute knowledge is impossible to obtain, or they may choose to believe that there is or is not a god. This belief is admittedly irrational since their belief is not based on facts.
Agnosticism is not the middle between theism and atheism. Theists can be agnostic, as can atheists, and agnostics may be neither. Its the same argument as a square is a rhombus but a rhombus need not be a square.
Your definition, then, would be technically wrong. Agnosticism is defined as "an intellectual doctrine or attitude affirming the uncertainty of all claims to ultimate knowledge." That does not preclude a person from making a personal judgment one way or another. Simply that one acknowledges that one cannot be absolutely certain one way or another.
Agnosticism is simply the belief that one cannot know for certain whether or not a divine being exists, and that is actually a very limited view of the full scope of the term. An atheist is not inherently agnostic but many atheists do base their beliefs off of an agnostic point of view. That is, since the existence of a divine being cannot be proven or refuted they choose to believe that there is no such being. By the same account a theist can be agnostic in that they acknowledge that the divine being or beings they believe in cannot be proven to exist.
I don't define greatness by the size of military might, nor by the landmass. The land of the Roman Empire was acquired through alliances and good faith. The Romans were known throughout the world, before the fall of the Republic, for their trustworthiness and reluctance for war. I'm not convinced that the fall of the Roman Empire sparked a "dark age" or that the time of the Empire was some golden age. The Medieval Period wasn't at all the Dark Age that it has so long been characterized as. Not that religious zealism and intolerance didn't limit scientific advancement, but there was significant engineering, technological, and scientific advances that took place during this period. But even with that in mind it's pointless to speculate what would have happened if the Roman Empire in the West hadn't collapsed under its own decadence and apathy.
As far as I can tell this scare is almost exactly like the Y2K scare, that is the calendar approaches a pivotal number and people freak out because they worry that the system is going to crash. What makes this more ridiculous than Y2K is that people are fearing the end of the world because the Mayan calendar, which hasn't been used for centuries, is about to start over its long-cycle. Essentially it's exactly the same as flipping to Jan 1 on your desk calendar on New Years Eve.
Biodiesel fuel is almost more unsustainable than fossil fuels. The current population of humans (6.8 billion) requires arable land equal to the size of South America (spread out across the globe) in order to survive. If population growth continues as it has in 2050 we'll require another Brazil's worth of arable land and the fact of the matter is that land simply doesn't exist (Despommier 82). All that is for food production. No, biodeiesel is a horrible alternative fuel source in that it reduces time, effort, and land devoted to more beneficial pursuits. On the other hand wind, water, and solar energy are much more plentiful, cleaner and cheaper in the long run. Not only that but with the right incentives and public will we can convert completely to WWS power by 2030 (Delucchie and Jacobson 65).
Delucchi, Mark A. Jacobson, Mark Z. "A Path to Sustainable Energy By 2030". Scientific American Nov. 2009: 58 - 65. Print.
Despommier, Dickson. "The Rise of Vertical Farms". Scientific American Nov. 2009: 80 - 87. Print.
There is no law that says "Go forth and have sex with every man you see in order to break the ice and make him love you." Abstinence is a valid argument in this and the longer that people like you deny that personnel responsibility, or rather the lack thereof, is the central issue of abortion the louder that people like Joe will shout.
You're describing some sort of electromagnetic attraction, gravity is a separate force. Gravity is the force produced by the distortion of spacetime due to matter. Imagine spacetime as a flat piece of flexible plastic. When a ball is dropped onto the surface the ball creates a depression. If a marble were to be rolled onto the plastic from one of the edges and passed close enough to the depression it would orbit around the depression. If the marble's momentum was great enough it would immediately escape this orbit, if it was too low it would plummet towards the larger ball. The gravitational force exerted by say the Sun on the Earth is very similar (though in three dimensions rather than two). Likewise the Earth exerts a force on the Sun and the Moon, and perhaps most importantly on everything on its surface.
The easy thing is hardly ever the right thing. That's one of the biggest problems with the world in any place at any time, people look for whatever will patch the problem as easily and as quickly as possible. Doing the hard thing requires the willingness to stand up and say we do these things "...not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." And while John F. Kennedy was talking about going to the Moon that's the mentality that we as responsible members of any society must have towards everything we do.
It doesn't matter what action is taken, you can't please everyone so we must do what is right regardless of the criticism and uproar that comes of it. The right thing, the hard thing, is only rarely supported by the masses of the present but is always appreciated by the public of the future.
P.S. Sorry this came out of the blue, this debate came back into my attention and I felt that I should finish what I meant to say but never had the time or the energy when I first got involved.
I can't speak to policy of any country except for the United States. I don't even know if this is an issue for non-Americans. But more importantly I was rebutting an argument that specifically discussed the issue in regards to the US Constitution, or at least that's how I saw it when I wrote that response. As such I responded to that person's particular point.
Photons are mass-less particles as are gluons. There are four fundamental forces, electromagnetism, gravity, the weak nuclear force which cause quarks to change from one flavor to another allowing for certain nuclear processes to occur, and the strong nuclear force which holds the nucleus of atoms together despite the significant tendency of protons to repel against on another. Each of these forces has one or more "transmitter" or "carrier" particles, photons for the EM, gravitons for gravity, gluons for the strong force (since they "glue" protons and neutrons together) and the vector bosons (W+, W-, and Z) for the weak force.
Forces such as friction are actually a result of one or more of these fundamental forces (in the case of friction its actually a result of the electromagnetic force which causes particles of opposite charges to attract one another causing the particles at the edges of the surface and mass to intermingle and resist movement).
Finally space isn't technically a vacuum, there's actually a very small density of mass throughout the galaxy, but much of it is actually filled with photos and neutrinos and possibly dark matter and energy particles as well, though these are only presumed to exist because of certain observations regarding the expansion of the Universe. As far as I know the Standard Model doesn't account for these particles.
But to answer the initial question Gravitons, almost certainly exist in one form or another. They almost certainly have no mass and since gravity is itself a very, very weak force when compared to the other forces it's unsurprising that it remains the last force particle undiscovered. Yet because it is mass-less this allows gravity to occur at the speed of light (since there is no mass it is able to devote its entire space-time velocity to spatial movement). Which leads to an interesting thought if the Sun were to suddenly disappear completely it would take around eight minutes for anyone on Earth to notice the change, whether it be because of the complete lack of sunshine, or the radical change in the motion of the planet.
The Roman Empire if for no other reason than it was the first empire built not through conquest but through goodwill and a devotion to doing the right thing no matter the cost. See Empires of Trust by Thomas F. Madden for more information on this somewhat radical historical theory and for a generally great read.
There is evidence of significant amounts of water on Mars. Any expedition to Mars would therefore, have to carry the water necessary for the trip to Mars and whatever time necessary to establish themselves on the planet and have the materials and equipment available (whether sent with the manned mission or ahead via robotic spacecraft) to acquire enough water for a return trip.
Physics uses math to quantify observations and to make predictions. Physics, and other sciences exist independent of the mathematics that they apply for these purposes. There are areas where various scientific disciplines interact and overlap, particle physics has a lot in common with chemistry and physics of particles contributes to our understanding of chemistry but that doesn't mean that chemistry is a sub field of physics. Biology certainly isn't a sub field of chemistry, bio-chemistry is the field where principles of chemistry are applied to life but a great deal of biology is observation of behavior which has little to do with chemistry in application.
We're not dealing with digital systems here, abstraction and inheritance don't really apply.
