Relationship of agnosticism to theist/atheism

James R said:
For me, atheism and agnosticism are about different things. Thus, I describe myself as an agnostic atheist.
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The term Agnostic was coined by Aldous Huxley, the author of 'Brave New World' in an attempt to express his own religious belief.
 
Until the '90s I wasn't interested in religion enough to give myself a label regarding my attitude toward any god or gods.
 
81 posts and I am still waiting for a definition describing the properties of a God that sets it apart from a FSM.

How can one believe in a nondescript object? A trick of imagination?
 
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Gawdzilla Sama said:
Until the '90s I wasn't interested in religion enough to give myself a label regarding my attitude toward any god or gods.
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Indeed. As every human does.
No human ever had need of labeling themselves as an a-unicornist until unicorn believers came along.
No human ever had need of labeling themselves as a Luddite until technology came along.
No human ever had need of labeling themselves as anti-Flying Spaghetti Monster until FSM came along.
 
I agree, but all these were beliefs in described objects.

Like this:
1731037864173.png This God is "food for thought".
I say this little prayer every time I have spaghetti for dinner! It never fails to satisfy the wish.

The biblical God is a nondescript object. I am confident that no one has really ever "heard" God's voice. We know about hallucinations.
 
James R said:
Agnosticism, on the other hand, is an opinion or stance concerning the importance of evidence. It is the idea that we shouldn't be convinced of something unless and until there is sufficient evidence to justify the belief.

It is possible to be an agnostic theist, just as it is possible to be an agnostic atheist. An agnostic theist would be a person who is convinced that God exists and who also believes there is sufficient evidence to warrant that belief.
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Isn't Agnosticism more about holding a view that any ultimate reality (such as God) is unknown in fact and probably unknowable in principle, or is really committed to holding such a belief.

Seems more that an agnostic theist would not believe there is sufficient evidence to warrant their belief, but instead would readily admit they can't support their beliefs in any way.
 
There's a spectrum there, from soft agnostic to hard agnostic. A few hundreds worth of material on that issue alone if you want it.
 
(Q) said:
Isn't Agnosticism more about holding a view that any ultimate reality (such as God) is unknown in fact and probably unknowable in principle, or is really committed to holding such a belief.

Seems more that an agnostic theist would not believe there is sufficient evidence to warrant their belief, but instead would readily admit they can't support their beliefs in any way.
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You may be right.
 
James R said:
For me, atheism and agnosticism are about different things. Thus, I describe myself as an agnostic atheist.

Atheism/theism is about what a person believes. If s/he is convinced that there is a god (or gods), s/he is a theist. If not, s/he is an atheist.

Agnosticism, on the other hand, is an opinion or stance concerning the importance of evidence. It is the idea that we shouldn't be convinced of something unless and until there is sufficient evidence to justify the belief.

It is possible to be an agnostic theist, just as it is possible to be an agnostic atheist. An agnostic theist would be a person who is convinced that God exists and who also believes there is sufficient evidence to warrant that belief.
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IMO, Agnosticism is not knowing yet which Gods to believe.
 
James R said:
I don't like the word "faith", for reasons I have previously explained. The word tends to get used in two very different ways. One way of having "faith" is to have confidence based on past experience of reliability. The other way is to pretend to know stuff you don't actually know. It's very useful in discussions like this one for theists to try to blur the boundaries between those two meanings, and using the same word for both things is such a convenient way to do that.
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Faith seems to be the polar opposite of Reason.
 
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