What does agnostic mean?
85Other uses of the word "agnostic"
Sometimes you'll hear the term "platform-agnostic" or "browser-agnostic", or other variations in the domain of technology. It simply means it doesn't matter which platform or browser you're using; it's set up to work across all of them. For example, a browser-agnostic application will work on Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera or any other browser equally well.
An agnostic believes that the nature of God and/or supernatural are unknown and unknowable by human beings, if they exist at all. An agnostic thinks it is impossible (at least now, with our current understanding of the nature of the world) to conclusively know the truth about the existence of God and the afterlife which Christianity and other religions are concerned with.
If you ask an agnostic "Does God exist?", possible replies might include:
An agnostic is different from an atheist, who believes, with certainty, that God does not exist. Agnostic means, literally, "does not know" (from Greek: the prefix a- means "not/without" + gnosis means "knowledge"
Famous historical agnostics
Thomas Huxley, an English biologist (1825-1895), coined the word "agnostic". In a letter written in 1860, he wrote:
"I neither affirm nor deny the immortality of man. I see no reason for believing it, but, on the other hand, I have no means of disproving it. I have no a priori objections to the doctrine."
He also wrote:
"When I reached intellectual maturity, and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; a Christian or a freethinker, I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until at last I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last...So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of "agnostic". It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the "gnostic" of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant..."
Bertrand Russell, and English philosopher (1872-1970) and author of Why I Am Not a Christian, wrote:
"An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial."
Read the entire interview here.
Another quote from Bertrand Russell that is apt here:
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
Famous contemporary agnostics
Writers
Martin Amis
Piers Anthony
Margaret Atwood
Umberto Eco
Matt Groening
Tony Kushner
Dan Savage
Ibn Warraq
Politicians
Michelle Bachelet
Winston Churchill
Scientists
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Hawking
Carl Sagan
Entertainers
Antonio Banderas
Monica Bellucci
Susie Bright
Richard Dreyfuss
Carrie Fisher
Bob Hoskins
Larry King
Dave Matthews
Larry Niven
Sean Penn
Roman Polanski
Keanu Reeves
Rod Steiger
James Taylor
Uma Thurman
Lawyers
Clarence Darrow
Alan Dershowitz
Businesspeople
Bill Gates
Ted Turner
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I can honestly say that I dont know if there is a god or not but I try to be the best person I can be .....jimmy
It's possible to be a Jew, a Muslim or a Christian AND and agnostic. The Episcopal minister in my church as a kid admitted to having doubts.
I can imagine being (ethnically/culturally) Jewish and agnostic (there are several examples above, like Dreyfuss, King & Dershowitz), but religiously Jewish/Christian/Muslim? I think the central tenet of these religions is the belief in God.
Your minister might have been an agnostic as a child but by being an Episcopalian Christian, he must have started believing in the existence of God.
I was raised a Catholic, but I am now an agnostic. I don't know whether God exists, in fact if I wrote a hub on what I don't know it would break the record for length.
I was also born Catholic but consider myself agnostic, too. I truly believe that we can't (at least currently) understand the origins of the universe.
in other words: pussy
Sounds like you have your mind all made up, yesduck....by someone else.
i like this web page it help me with my very hard bit of corsework
thanksxx
shannon
thanks for helping me understand the terminology's of these religions.
Nice hub. However, these are not the only accepted definitions of words like "atheist" and "agnostic". Many people use atheism to mean a lack of belief in any gods, by which definition agnostics can be considered atheists. Some people maintain that "theism" and "atheism" are on the axis of belief, while "gnostic" and "agnostic" are on the axis of knowledge, thus a person can be described as a "gnostic atheist", or an "agnostic theist" etc.
And then of course there are terms such as "weak atheism" and "strong atheism". The semantic knit pickery is endless.
But anyway, good hub!
Pretty interesting but I feel the topic has barely scratched the surface. I often wonder what the difference between "I think" "I believe" and "I know" are, in other words could someone be agnostic (not knowing) and still 'believe' in God? One inconsistency I noticed was that I thought Winston Churchill was a freemason and one of their tenets for membership in the fraternity has always been 'belief in a supreme being'? This is not a problem however if agnostics can still believe one way or the other without knowing.
These topics can be discussed forever and have been. Still it comes down to faith. Believing in something that you cannot see, hear, smell, or touch. I guess it's something you can feel though. For some people every word in their book of religion is taken literally. For others it's left open to interpretation. The human minds imagination has advanced civilization but has yet to accept complete accountability for it's actions. Still primitive in it's basic form.
Y'know what everyone... each of us was already born agnostics in fact! We were born, unaware... 'cause by that time (we're just infants and still youngsters) we don't know anything about the belief (whether God exists or not)... we just say we were born Christian, Jew, Muslim (whatsoever)because probably, we're already indoctrinated by the beliefs of our family (or anybody who raised us). Makes sense?
and y'know also that agnosticism could've been probably the OLDEST religion (whatever) existing... as humans haven't proven yet the God's existence since we have different religions and philosophies to dwell on (clashing beliefs,etc.)...still, it's all debatable!
But, I wanna share to you fellas that we must be open with different possibilities that we COULD still be wrong soon...
some people say, we have a weak spirit or faith, but I say, it's innate to us to have DOUBTS to give us strength in searching for truth and having our own way of fulfillment... (many to mention)
just watch this nice video in youtube... click the following link:
agnosticism didn't just begin only because thomas huxley coined the term "agnosticism"... it already began since humans doubted and asked vast questions, etc... it would be a long argument for close- minded people to understand this simple idea...
My professor once quoted a writer, that a fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.. I believe in my existence. I am alive. I AM. My mum and dad are neither powerful enough to create me or undo me. If we can just stop trying to be smart, open our eyes to our own selves and SEE, we'll KNOW, and we can BELIEVE...That God does exist.
Thank you for the assistance in researching a topic of interest to me. I am using some of this newfound knowledge on my paper for college...thank you!
(An agnostic is different from an atheist, who believes, with certainty, that God does not exist.)
There is no such thing as "belief with certainty". We can believe something to be the case. Certainty means that we can prove something to be the case. Atheists cannot prove god exists or not. Hence they can only take the position of belief there is no god. Just like theists take the position of belief there is a god. So on the issue of belief, there is no difference between agnostic and atheist.
(Agnostic means, literally, "does not know")
Yes, atheists don't know either because they cannot prove it either way.
When asked "do you believe there is a god?"
Theists answer: Yes
Atheists answer: No
Agnostics answer: No
"I don't know" is not an answer to a question of belief - it is an answer to a question of knowledge.
Both atheists and agnostics will answer "I don't know" to the question: "Is there a god?"
Thomas Huxley has awesome side burns! Cool hub, any chance you saw my Deistic diatribe below?
vic says:
3 years ago
Nice Hub and intersting list of agnostics. Thank you.