[extropy-chat] Atheism in Decline

[Brett Paatsch]

Hal Finney wrote:

> Until you know which concept of God they are asking about, you
> can't give a meaningful answer to the probability of his existence.

Nicely said Hal.  

Wouldn't it save a lot of trouble if no discussion about "God" could get
started without both parties first agreeing to at least find out what the
other party thought the word was going to mean?

And if both parties can't agree on what the subject under consideration
is, at least one of them should have the sense to see that its obvious that
they are not going to be able to have a meaningful discussion about it
and so refrain from trying too. 

The "it", the common referent, isn't there. 

When posting to a list like this one, when someone wants to talk about
"God" they *could* say, this term may be confusing, so this is what *I*
mean.   (This is just an idea which I'd assign a near zero probability
of catching on :-)

Brett Paatsch