foxmart

I consider myself one. I was raised under a heavily catholic influence but as I've grown older I've become more objective in my religious and ethical beliefs. In that sense I consider agnosticism to be a sort of neutral, possibly even unsure, position about religious beliefs and the very existence of God. Agnosticism should not be confused with atheism, which is complete disbelief in the existence of God, not just a rejection of all organized religions.

JimiLe

Typically, agnostism is seen as that grey area between theism (believing in God) and atheism (not believing in God.) But it really isn't that simple is it?

It's like being told you only have a choice between believing or not believing what your ancestors believed. You say, "YES! it's all True!" or "NO! it's all a Lie!"

Not much of a choice. What if it's like most everything else we learned thorough the centuries: some of the things people used to believe still seem to be true (for example, sticking you hand in fire hurts), and some thing clearly aren't true (the world is not flat and there are not "sea monsters" out there in the uncharted regions.)

Agnostic really means "don't know." It also implies it's opposite term: gnostic.

So, we really have two axis or ways of approaching the question: belief vs knowledge. At least in the West, we've been taught to see religion purely in terms of belief for so long that we don't believe it is possible to know anything about it. We can only believe or disbelieve. Again, that's not much of a choice!

Well, perhaps that works for some people. And if it does, good for them (that is if they don't want to punish, attack, or kill people that don't believe like they do. )

I could be mean and say both theists and atheists are really agnostic because clearly they don't know, they only believe or disbelieve. True from a certain point-of-view, but still a bit mean to say. To each, his own. It takes all types to make a universe.

As for me, I'm the curious type of person. My favorite question is "Why?" All of my life experience and education tells me that I can learn many things from those who came before me. But they certainly didn't have all the answers, and many times were very, very wrong. It's my life. I'm the one who lives and dies with the consequences.

I'm going to find out for myself ===> that makes me a "gnostic" or a "seeker of truth." Of course, that means I'll have to work at finding new ways to look at the whole subject. Sounds like fun.


--Jimi Le

P.S. I'd alter Shakespeare just a bit and say: "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our religions or philosophies."

mansio

Difficult to have an opinion of agnosticism or to discuss it as it is the fact to have NO opinion.