The Difference Between Agnostics and Atheists
An agnostic and an atheist are sitting in a pub when a man rushes in from outside and says, "I've just seen the most incredible thing! There was a black dog walking down the street that had wings and two heads! He was all green and floated in the air about a foot off the pavement, and was reciting Chaucer in fluent Aramaic!"
When the agnostic and the atheist go out to see this amazing animal they find the street deserted, but the third man assures them that the dog had been there just moments ago.
They go back inside the pub and order another round.
The barman delivers their drinks and asks, "So do you guys believe all that about the weird dog?"
The agnostic says, "I have no idea. I could be true, I suppose. There's no way of absolutely telling for sure."
The atheist says, "I can't disprove his story, but based on what I know of the way the world usually works, and the fact that two of his claims are self-contradictory, and a third is based on knowledge he doesn't posses (he doesn't speak Aramaic), I consider the probability of his claims being true to be vanishingly close to zero. In short, he's almost certainly lying, though there is also a chance he was hallucinating."
Were you expecting a joke? Sorry; no punch line. This is just the most succinct illustration I could come up with to explain why I'm an atheist and not an agnostic. Unfalsifiable assertions are not a 50/50 coin flip.
When the agnostic and the atheist go out to see this amazing animal they find the street deserted, but the third man assures them that the dog had been there just moments ago.
They go back inside the pub and order another round.
The barman delivers their drinks and asks, "So do you guys believe all that about the weird dog?"
The agnostic says, "I have no idea. I could be true, I suppose. There's no way of absolutely telling for sure."
The atheist says, "I can't disprove his story, but based on what I know of the way the world usually works, and the fact that two of his claims are self-contradictory, and a third is based on knowledge he doesn't posses (he doesn't speak Aramaic), I consider the probability of his claims being true to be vanishingly close to zero. In short, he's almost certainly lying, though there is also a chance he was hallucinating."
Were you expecting a joke? Sorry; no punch line. This is just the most succinct illustration I could come up with to explain why I'm an atheist and not an agnostic. Unfalsifiable assertions are not a 50/50 coin flip.