Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the belief that God's existence or non existence is unknowable. However, when speaking informally many people use agnostic simply to mean "undecided" about God's existence, without implying anything about our ability to know for sure.
The word "agnostic" was coined by T. H. Huxley[1] from the Greek roots a- not, and -gnostic, knowing; the philosopher Herbert Spencer was influential in spreading its use. One nineteenth-century saw held that "There is no god but the Unknowable, and Herbert Spencer is his prophet."[2]
Agnosticism has become a fairly common belief system in Western culture with 14% of people in the United States, 32% of people in France and 35% of people in Great Britain self-identifying as agnostics.[3]
Atheism and agnosticism
Some agnostics bristle at the term atheist. They say they aren't atheists, because they don't "believe that God does not exist" but rather "neither believe nor disbelieve".
Agnostics differ from regular atheists in that they do not deny God's existence.
Many religious believers make no distinction among non-believers. If you're not sure that God exists, they combine the unsure and "surely not" into one lump. For these believers, an "atheist" is anyone who doesn't believe in God.
Among those who have not decided whether to believe in God, or to disbelieve in Him, there are two main groups:
- Those who simply haven't made a decision
- Those who declare no rational decision is possible, on the grounds that the existence of God is not knowable.
Bertrand Russell once wrote that, in describing his beliefs,
- I never know whether I should say 'Agnostic' or whether I should say 'Atheist'.... As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one [can] prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.[4]
References
- ↑ T. H. Huxley was also an early and influential supporter of Darwinism.
- ↑ London, Jack (1913), Martin Eden, Chapter 13
- ↑ http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=1131
- ↑ Russell, Bertrand (1947) Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic? Most online sources say "by which one prove," probably a mistake.