Agnosticism

Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the truth values of certain claims?particularly theological claims regarding the existence of God, gods, or deities?are unknown, inherently unknowable, or incoherent, and therefore, (some agnostics may go as far to say) irrelevant to life. The term and the related agnostic were coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869, and are also used to describe those who are unconvinced or noncommittal about the existence of deities as well as other matters of religion. The word agnostic comes from the Greek a (without) and gnosis (knowledge). Agnosticism is not to be confused with a view specifically opposing the doctrine of gnosis and Gnosticism—these are religious concepts that are not generally related to agnosticism.

Variations

Agnosticism has suffered more than most expressions of philosophical position from terminological vagaries. This often stems from the distinction (or lack thereof) between the words "belief" and "knowledge". Some consider them to be the same. (Eg: "I believe god exists" = "I know god exists" = "I affirm the truth-value of the statement 'god exists'"). Others consider them to be different (Eg: "I believe god exists" can still mean "I don't know if god exists" or "I cannot affirm the truth-value of the statement 'god exists'").

Related Topics:
Belief - Knowledge

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Data collection services http://adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html#Nonreligious, http://cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2122.html often display the common use of the term, distinct from atheism in its lack of disputing the existence of deities. Agnostics are listed alongside secular, non-religious, or other such categories.

Related Topics:
Secular - Non-religious

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Other variations include:

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• Strong agnosticism (also called hard agnosticism, closed agnosticism, strict agnosticism)?the view that the question of the existence of deities is unknowable by nature or that human beings are ill-equipped to judge the evidence.
• Weak agnosticism (also called soft agnosticism, open agnosticism, empirical agnosticism)?the view that the existence or nonexistence of God or gods is currently unknown but isn't necessarily unknowable, therefore one will withhold judgement until more evidence is available.
• Apatheism?the view that the whole question of God's existence or nonexistence is beneath consideration or concern.
• Apathetic agnosticism?the view that the whole question of God's existence or nonexistence cannot yet be properly answered, and therefore one should free oneself from a fruitless search.
• Ignosticism?the view that the concept of God as a being is scientifically meaningless because it has no verifiable consequences, therefore it cannot be usefully discussed as having existence or nonexistence.
• Model agnosticism?the view that philosophical and metaphysical questions are not ultimately verifiable but that a model of malleable assumption should be built upon rational thought. Note that this branch of agnosticism differs from others in that it does not focus upon the question of a deity's existence.
• Agnostic theism-the view of those who do not claim to know God's existence, but still believe in his existence. Whether this truly is agnosticism is disputed.