Agnosticism: Difference between revisions

{{Useful Notes}}

"Agnosticism" is the belief that one either cannot know, or cannot decide, whether God exists. The term was coined by [[wikipedia:Thomas Henry Huxley|Thomas Henry Huxley]] in 1869, though the concept has been [http://www.uctaa.net/articles/meds/med13/med244.html kicking around for much longer]. Agnostics usually appear under the category of "non-believers" along with atheists. Incidentally, whilst there is a degree of overlap, agnosticism is not the same as [[Atheism]]. Agnosticism is distinct in the sense that whilst agnostics do not necessarily believe in God, they do not ''disbelieve'' in God either. While agnostics generally agree with atheists on the subject of belief in God or gods, they disagree on the subject of disbelief: a common agnostic criticism of atheism is the scientific principle that "absence of proof does not constitute a disproof".

 

* belief that God's existence is neither proven nor disproven. That is, that while God may be "knowable", we do not "know" yet either way.

* agnostic atheism, where God probably does not exist, it is not impossible that one does.

 

Agnosticism can also be used to describe someone who is undecided, or just non-committed to any particular belief. For example, in experimental physics, there is a concept called "model agnosticism", which describes a state of mind in which the experimenter has multiple theories (or "models"), but keeps an open mind about which of them is true pending the results of the experiment.

[[Category:Agnosticism]]

[[Category:Useful Notes/Religion]]