Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Faizan (talk | contribs) at 08:45, 9 February 2014 (→Demographics: fix). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Agnosticism is the view that the truth values of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, as well as other religious and metaphysical claims, are unknown or unknowable. Agnosticism sometimes indicates doubt or a skeptical approach to questions. In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of a deity or deities, whereas a theist and an atheist believe and disbelieve, respectively.

Thomas Henry Huxley, an English biologist, coined the word agnostic in 1869. However, earlier thinkers have written works that promoted agnostic points of view. These thinkers include Sanjaya Belatthaputta, a 5th-century BCE Indian philosopher who expressed agnosticism about any afterlife, Protagoras, a 5th-century BCE Greek philosopher was agnostic about the gods. The Nasadiya Sukta in the Rig Veda which is agnostic about the origin of the universe.

Since the time that Huxley coined the term, many other thinkers have extensively written about agnosticism.

Defining agnosticism

Thomas Henry Huxley said:

Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, the essence of which lies in the rigorous application of a single principle ... Positively the principle may be expressed: In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively: In matters of the intellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable.

According to philosopher William L. Rowe, in the strict sense agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of rationally justifying the belief that deities do, or do not, exist.

Etymology

Agnostic (from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) 'without' and γνῶσις (gnōsis) 'knowledge') was used by Thomas Henry Huxley in a speech at a meeting of the Metaphysical Society in 1869 to describe his philosophy which rejects all claims of spiritual or mystical knowledge.

Early Christian church leaders used the Greek word gnosis (knowledge) to describe "spiritual knowledge". Agnosticism is not to be confused with religious views opposing the ancient religious movement of Gnosticism in particular; Huxley used the term in a broader, more abstract sense. Huxley identified agnosticism not as a creed but rather as a method of skeptical, evidence-based inquiry.

In recent years, scientific literature dealing with neuroscience and psychology has used the word to mean "not knowable". In technical and marketing literature, "agnostic" can also mean independence from some parameters—for example, "platform agnostic" or "hardware agnostic"

Qualifying agnosticism

Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume contended that meaningful statements about the universe are always qualified by some degree of doubt. He asserted that the fallibility of human beings means that they cannot obtain absolute certainty except in trivial cases where a statement is true by definition (i.e. tautologies such as "all bachelors are unmarried" or "all triangles have three corners").

Types of agnosticism

A person calling oneself 'agnostic' is stating that he or she has no opinion on the existence of God, as there is no definitive evidence for or against. Agnosticism has, however, more recently been subdivided into several categories. Variations include:

Agnostic atheism

The view of those who do not believe in the existence of any deity, but do not claim to know if a deity does or does not exist.

Agnostic theism

The view of those who do not claim to know of the existence of any deity, but still believe in such an existence.

Apathetic or pragmatic agnosticism

The view that there is no proof of either the existence or nonexistence of any deity, but since any deity that may exist appears unconcerned for the universe or the welfare of its inhabitants, the question is largely academic. Therefore, their existence has little to no impact on personal human affairs and should be of little theological interest.

Strong agnosticism (also called "hard", "closed", "strict", or "permanent agnosticism")

The view that the question of the existence or nonexistence of a deity or deities, and the nature of ultimate reality is unknowable by reason of our natural inability to verify any experience with anything but another subjective experience. A strong agnostic would say, "I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, and neither can you."

Weak agnosticism (also called "soft", "open", "empirical", or "temporal agnosticism")

The view that the existence or nonexistence of any deities is currently unknown but is not necessarily unknowable; therefore, one will withhold judgment until evidence, if any, becomes available. A weak agnostic would say, "I don't know whether any deities exist or not, but maybe one day, if there is evidence, we can find something out."

History

Hindu philosophy

Throughout the history of Hinduism there has been a strong tradition of philosophic speculation and skepticism.

The Rig Veda takes an agnostic view on the fundamental question of how the universe and the gods were created. Nasadiya Sukta (Creation Hymn) in the tenth chapter of the Rig Veda says:

Who really knows?
Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?
The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?

Greek philosophy

Agnostic thought, in the form of skepticism, emerged as a formal philosophical position in ancient Greece. Its proponents included Protagoras, Pyrrho, Carneades, Sextus Empiricus and, to some degree, Socrates, who was a strong advocate for a skeptical approach to epistemology.

Pyrrho said that we should abstain from making judgement as we can can never know the true reality. According to Pyrrho, having opinion was possible, but certainty and knowledge are impossible. Carneades was also a skeptic in relation to all knowledge claims. He proposed a probability theory, however, according to him, certainty could never be attained. Protagoras rejected the conventional accounts of the gods. He said:

Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be. Many things prevent knowledge including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life.

Hume, Kant, and Kierkegaard

Aristotle, Anselm, Aquinas, and Descartes presented arguments attempting to rationally prove the existence of God. The skeptical empiricism of David Hume, the antinomies of Immanuel Kant, and the existential philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard convinced many later philosophers to abandon these attempts, regarding it impossible to construct any unassailable proof for the existence or non-existence of God.

In his 1844 book, Philosophical Fragments, Kierkegaard writes:

Let us call this unknown something: God. It is nothing more than a name we assign to it. The idea of demonstrating that this unknown something (God) exists, could scarcely suggest itself to Reason. For if God does not exist it would of course be impossible to prove it; and if he does exist it would be folly to attempt it. For at the very outset, in beginning my proof, I would have presupposed it, not as doubtful but as certain (a presupposition is never doubtful, for the very reason that it is a presupposition), since otherwise I would not begin, readily understanding that the whole would be impossible if he did not exist. But if when I speak of proving God's existence I mean that I propose to prove that the Unknown, which exists, is God, then I express myself unfortunately. For in that case I do not prove anything, least of all an existence, but merely develop the content of a conception.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Agnostic views are as old as philosophical skepticism, but the terms agnostic and agnosticism were created by Huxley to sum up his thoughts on contemporary developments of metaphysics about the "unconditioned" (Hamilton) and the "unknowable" (Herbert Spencer). Though Huxley began to use the term "agnostic" in 1869, his opinions had taken shape some time before that date. In a letter of September 23, 1860, to Charles Kingsley, Huxley discussed his views extensively:

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. No man who has to deal daily and hourly with nature can trouble himself about a priori difficulties. Give me such evidence as would justify me in believing in anything else, and I will believe that. Why should I not? It is not half so wonderful as the conservation of force or the indestructibility of matter ...

It is no use to talk to me of analogies and probabilities. I know what I mean when I say I believe in the law of the inverse squares, and I will not rest my life and my hopes upon weaker convictions ...

That my personality is the surest thing I know may be true. But the attempt to conceive what it is leads me into mere verbal subtleties. I have champed up all that chaff about the ego and the non-ego, noumena and phenomena, and all the rest of it, too often not to know that in attempting even to think of these questions, the human intellect flounders at once out of its depth.

And again, to the same correspondent, May 6, 1863:

I have never had the least sympathy with the a priori reasons against orthodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible antipathy to all the atheistic and infidel school. Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling, atheist and infidel. I cannot see one shadow or tittle of evidence that the great unknown underlying the phenomenon of the universe stands to us in the relation of a Father loves us and cares for us as Christianity asserts. So with regard to the other great Christian dogmas, immortality of soul and future state of rewards and punishments, what possible objection can I—who am compelled perforce to believe in the immortality of what we call Matter and Force, and in a very unmistakable present state of rewards and punishments for our deeds—have to these doctrines? Give me a scintilla of evidence, and I am ready to jump at them.

Of the origin of the name agnostic to describe this attitude, Huxley gave the following account:

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; 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. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain "gnosis,"–had, more or less successfully, solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble. And, with Hume and Kant on my side, I could not think myself presumptuous in holding fast by that opinion ... 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. ... To my great satisfaction the term took.

Huxley's agnosticism is believed to be a natural consequence of the intellectual and philosophical conditions of the 1860s, when clerical intolerance was trying to suppress scientific discoveries which appeared to clash with a literal reading of the Book of Genesis and other established Jewish and Christian doctrines. Agnosticism should not, however, be confused with natural theology, deism, pantheism, or other forms of theism.

By way of clarification, Huxley states, "In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively: In matters of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable" (Huxley, Agnosticism, 1889). Although Alfred Williams Momerie has noted that this is nothing but a definition of honesty, Huxley's usual definition goes beyond mere honesty to insist that these metaphysical issues are fundamentally unknowable.

William Stewart Ross

William Stewart Ross wrote under the name of Saladin. He championed agnosticism in opposition to the atheism of Charles Bradlaugh as an open-ended spiritual exploration. In Why I am an Agnostic (c.1889) he claims that agnosticism is "the very reverse of atheism".

Robert G. Ingersoll

Robert G. Ingersoll, an Illinois lawyer and politician who evolved into a well-known and sought-after orator in 19th-century America, has been referred to as the "Great Agnostic".

In an 1896 lecture titled Why I Am An Agnostic, Ingersoll related why he was an agnostic:

Is there a supernatural power—an arbitrary mind—an enthroned God—a supreme will that sways the tides and currents of the world—to which all causes bow? I do not deny. I do not know—but I do not believe. I believe that the natural is supreme—that from the infinite chain no link can be lost or broken—that there is no supernatural power that can answer prayer—no power that worship can persuade or change—no power that cares for man.

I believe that with infinite arms Nature embraces the all—that there is no interference—no chance—that behind every event are the necessary and countless causes, and that beyond every event will be and must be the necessary and countless effects.

Is there a God? I do not know. Is man immortal? I do not know. One thing I do know, and that is, that neither hope, nor fear, belief, nor denial, can change the fact. It is as it is, and it will be as it must be.

In the conclusion of the speech he simply sums up the agnostic position as:

We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know.

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell's pamphlet, Why I Am Not a Christian, based on a speech delivered in 1927 and later included in a book of the same title, is considered a classic statement of agnosticism. He calls upon his readers to "stand on their own two feet and look fair and square at the world with a fearless attitude and a free intelligence".

In 1939, Russell gave a lecture on The existence and nature of God, in which he characterized himself as an atheist. He said:

The existence and nature of God is a subject of which I can discuss only half. If one arrives at a negative conclusion concerning the first part of the question, the second part of the question does not arise; and my position, as you may have gathered, is a negative one on this matter.

However, later in the same lecture, discussing modern non-anthropomorphic concepts of God, Russell states:

That sort of God is, I think, not one that can actually be disproved, as I think the omnipotent and benevolent creator can.

In Russell's 1947 pamphlet, Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic? (subtitled A Plea For Tolerance In The Face Of New Dogmas), he ruminates on the problem of what to call himself:

As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.

In his 1953 essay, What Is An Agnostic? Russell states:

An agnostic thinks it impossible to know the truth in matters such as God and the future life with which Christianity and other religions are concerned. Or, if not impossible, at least impossible at the present time.

Later in the essay, Russell adds:

I think that if I heard a voice from the sky predicting all that was going to happen to me during the next twenty-four hours, including events that would have seemed highly improbable, and if all these events then produced to happen, I might perhaps be convinced at least of the existence of some superhuman intelligence.

Leslie Weatherhead

In 1965 Christian theologian Leslie Weatherhead published The Christian Agnostic, in which he argues:

... many professing agnostics are nearer belief in the true God than are many conventional church-goers who believe in a body that does not exist whom they miscall God.

Although radical and unpalatable to conventional theologians, Weatherhead's agnosticism falls far short of Huxley's, and short even of weak agnosticism:

Of course, the human soul will always have the power to reject God, for choice is essential to its nature, but I cannot believe that anyone will finally do this.

Demographics

Demographic research services normally do not differentiate between various types of non-religious respondents, so agnostics are often classified in the same category as atheists or other non-religious people.

A 2010 survey published in Encyclopædia Britannica found that the non-religious people or the agnostics made up about 9.6% of the world's population. A November–December 2006 poll published in the Financial Times gives rates for the United States and five European countries. The rates of agnosticism in the United States were at 14%, while the rates of agnosticism in the European countries surveyed were considerably higher: Italy (20%), Spain (30%), Great Britain (35%), Germany (25%), and France (32%).

A study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that about 16% of the world's people, the third largest group after Christianity and Islam, have no religious affiliation. According to a 2012 report by the Pew Research Center, agnostics made up 3.3% of the US adult population. In the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center, 55% of agnostic respondents expressed "a belief in God or a universal spirit", whereas 41% stated that they thought that they felt a tension "being non-religious in a society where most people are religious."

Other studies have placed the estimated percentage of atheists, agnostics, and other nonbelievers in a personal god as low as single digits in Poland, Romania, Cyprus, and some other European countries. According to the 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 22% of Australians have "no religion", a category that includes agnostics. Between 64% and 65% of Japanese and up to 81%of Vietnamese are atheists, agnostics, or do not believe in a god. An official European Union survey reported that 3% of the EU population is unsure about their belief in a god or spirit.

Criticism

Agnosticism is criticized from a variety of standpoints. Some religious thinkers see agnosticism as limiting the mind's capacity to know reality to materialism. Some atheists criticize the use of the term agnosticism as functionally indistinguishable from atheism; this results in frequent criticisms of those who adopt the term as avoiding the 'atheist label'.

Some thinkers and philosophers deny the validity of agnosticism, seeing it as a check of man's capacity to know the reality. by asserting that human intelligence, has a non-material, spiritual element. They affirm that "not being able to see or hold some specific thing does not necessarily negate its existence," using gravity, entropy, reason and thought as examples.

Religious

Religious scholars such as Brown, Tacelli, and Kreeft argue that it does not take into account evidence that God has placed within his creation. And for this, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli cite 20 arguments for God's existence. They assert that any 'demand' for evidence testable in a laboratory is in effect asking God, the supreme being, to become man's servant. They argue that the question of God should be treated differently from other knowable objects in that "this question regards not that which is below us, but that which is above us." Christian Philosopher Blaise Pascal argued that even if there were truly no evidence for God, agnostics should consider what is now known as Pascal's Wager: the infinite expected value of acknowledging God is always greater than the finite expected value of not acknowledging his existence, and thus it is a safer "bet" to choose God.

According to Joseph Ratzinger, strong agnosticism in particular limits and contradicts itself in affirming the power of reason to know scientific truth, but not religious or metaphysical truths. He blames the exclusion of reasoning from religion and ethics for dangerous pathologies such as crimes against humanity and ecological disasters. "Agnosticism", said Ratzinger, "is always the fruit of a refusal of that knowledge which is in fact offered to man ... The knowledge of God has always existed." He asserted that agnosticism is a choice of comfort, pride, dominion, and utility over truth, and is opposed by the following attitudes: the keenest self-criticism, humble listening to the whole of existence, the persistent patience and self-correction of the scientific method, a readiness to be purified by the truth.

According to some theistic scholars, agnosticism is impossible in practice, since a person can live only either as if God did not exist (etsi deus non daretur), or as if God did exist (etsi deus daretur). These scholars believe that each day in a person's life is an unavoidable step towards death, and thus not to decide for or against God, whom they view as the all-encompassing foundation, purpose, and meaning of life, is to decide in favor of atheism.

The Catholic Church sees merit in examining what it calls Partial Agnosticism, specifically those systems that "do not aim at constructing a complete philosophy of the Unknowable, but at excluding special kinds of truth, notably religious, from the domain of knowledge." However, the Church is historically opposed to a full denial of the capacity of human reason to know God. The Council of the Vatican, relying on biblical scripture, declares that "God, the beginning and end of all, can, by the natural light of human reason, be known with certainty from the works of creation" (Const. De Fide, II, De Rev.).

Atheist

According to Richard Dawkins, a distinction between agnosticism and atheism is unwieldy and depends on how close to zero a person is willing to rate the probability of existence for any given god-like entity. Since in practice it is not worth contrasting a zero probability with one that is nearly indistinguishable from zero, he prefers to categorize himself as a "de facto atheist". He specifies his position by means of a scale of 1 to 7. On this scale, 1 indicates "100 per cent probability of God". A person ranking at 7 on the scale would be a person who says "I know there is no God ..." Dawkins places himself at 6 on the scale, which he characterizes as "I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there", but leaning toward 7. About himself, Dawkins continues that "I am agnostic only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at the bottom of the garden." Dawkins also identifies two categories of agnostics: Temporary Agnostics in Practice (TAPs), and Permanent Agnostics in Principle (PAPs). Dawkins considers temporary agnosticism an entirely reasonable position, but views permanent agnosticism as "fence-sitting, intellectual cowardice".

Related concepts

Ignosticism is the view that a coherent definition of a deity must be put forward before the question of the existence of a deity can be meaningfully discussed. If the chosen definition is not coherent, the ignostic holds the noncognitivist view that the existence of a deity is meaningless or empirically untestable.

A.J. Ayer, Theodore Drange, and other philosophers see both atheism and agnosticism as incompatible with ignosticism on the grounds that atheism and agnosticism accept "a deity exists" as a meaningful proposition which can be argued for or against.

See also

• Asimov's Guide to the Bible
• Apatheism
• Existentialism
• Gnosticism
• Ietsism
• Laïcité
• List of agnostics
• Possibilianism
• Rationalism
• Relativism
• Religiosity
• Religious skepticism
• Russell's teapot
• Skepticism
• Unknown God

References

Notes

1. Hepburn, Ronald W. (2005) . "Agnosticism". In Donald M. Borchert (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Vol. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). MacMillan Reference USA (Gale). p. 92. ISBN 0-02-865780-2. In the most general use of the term, agnosticism is the view that we do not know whether there is a God or not. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |volume= has extra text (help) (page 56 in 1967 edition)
2. ^ Rowe, William L. (1998). "Agnosticism". In Edward Craig (ed.). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-07310-3. In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in God, whereas an atheist disbelieves in God. In the strict sense, however, agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist. In so far as one holds that our beliefs are rational only if they are sufficiently supported by human reason, the person who accepts the philosophical position of agnosticism will hold that neither the belief that God exists nor the belief that God does not exist is rational.
3. "agnostic, agnosticism". OED Online, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press. September 2012. agnostic. A. n. 1. A person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of immaterial things, especially of the existence or nature of God. 2. In extended use: a person who is not persuaded by or committed to a particular point of view; a sceptic. Also: person of indeterminate ideology or conviction; an equivocator. B. adj. 1. Of or relating to the belief that the existence of anything beyond and behind material phenomena is unknown and (as far as can be judged) unknowable. Also: holding this belief. 2. a. In extended use: not committed to or persuaded by a particular point of view; sceptical. Also: politically or ideologically unaligned; non-partisan, equivocal. agnosticism, n. The doctrine or tenets of agnostics with regard to the existence of anything beyond and behind material phenomena or to knowledge of a First Cause or God. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); line feed character in |quote= at position 16 (help)
4. "Samaññaphala Sutta: The Fruits of the Contemplative Life". a part of the Digha Nikaya translated in 1997 by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. If you ask me if there exists another world (after death), ... I don't think so. I don't think in that way. I don't think otherwise. I don't think not. I don't think not not.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
5. Bhaskar (1972).
6. Lloyd Ridgeon (March 13, 2003). Major World Religions: From Their Origins To The Present. Taylor & Francis. pp. 63–. ISBN 978-0-203-42313-4.
7. ^ The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Protagoras (c. 490 – c. 420 BCE). Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2013. While the pious might wish to look to the gods to provide absolute moral guidance in the relativistic universe of the Sophistic Enlightenment, that certainty also was cast into doubt by philosophic and sophistic thinkers, who pointed out the absurdity and immorality of the conventional epic accounts of the gods. Protagoras' prose treatise about the gods began 'Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be. Many things prevent knowledge including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life.'
8. Patri, Umesh and Prativa Devi. "Progress of Atheism in India: A Historical Perspective". Atheist Centre 1940–1990 Golden Jubilee. Vijayawada, February 1990. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
9. Trevor Treharne (2012). How to Prove God Does Not Exist: The Complete Guide to Validating Atheism. Universal-Publishers. pp. 34–. ISBN 978-1-61233-118-8.
10. Helmut Schwab (December 10, 2012). Essential Writings: A Journey Through Time: A Modern "De Rerum Natura". iUniverse. pp. 77–. ISBN 978-1-4759-6026-6.
11. Huxley, Thomas Henry (April 1889). "Agnosticism". The Popular Science Monthly. 34 (46). New York: D. Appleton & Company: 768. Wikisource has the full text of the article here.
12. Richard Dawkins (January 16, 2008). The God Delusion. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 72–. ISBN 0-547-34866-5.
13. Dixon, Thomas (2008). Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-19-929551-7.
14. Antony, Flew. "Agnosticism". Encyclopaedia Britannica online. Retrieved December 15, 2011.
15. "ag·nos·tic". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
16. Aphorisms and Reflections. Kessinger Publishing. 2004 (reprint). pp. 41–42. ISBN 978-1-4191-0730-6. {{cite book}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing pipe in: |first= (help)
17. Oxford English Dictionary, Additions Series, 1993
18. Sophie Woodrooffe and Dan Levy (September 9, 2012). "What Does Platform Agnostic Mean?". Sparksheet. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
19. Yevgeniy Sverdlik (July 31, 2013). "EMC AND NETAPP – A SOFTWARE-DEFINED STORAGE BATTLE: Interoperability no longer matter of choice for big storage vendors". Datacenter Dynamics. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
20. Hume, David, "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" (1748)
21. ^ Smith, George H (1979). Atheism: The Case Against God. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-0-87975-124-1. Properly considered, agnosticism is not a third alternative to theism and atheism because it is concerned with a different aspect of religious belief. Theism and atheism refer to the presence or absence of belief in a god; agnosticism refers to the impossibility of knowledge with regard to a god or supernatural being. The term agnostic does not, in itself, indicate whether or not one believes in a god. Agnosticism can be either theistic or atheistic.
22. Harrison, Alexander James (1894). The Ascent of Faith: or, the Grounds of Certainty in Science and Religion. London: Hodder and Stroughton. p. 21. OCLC 7234849. OL 21834002M. Let Agnostic Theism stand for that kind of Agnosticism which admits a Divine existence; Agnostic Atheism for that kind of Agnosticism which thinks it does not.
23. Barker, Dan (2008). Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists. New York: Ulysses Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-56975-677-5. OL 24313839M. People are invariably surprised to hear me say I am both an atheist and an agnostic, as if this somehow weakens my certainty. I usually reply with a question like, "Well, are you a Republican or an American?" The two words serve different concepts and are not mutually exclusive. Agnosticism addresses knowledge; atheism addresses belief. The agnostic says, "I don't have a knowledge that God exists." The atheist says, "I don't have a belief that God exists." You can say both things at the same time. Some agnostics are atheistic and some are theistic.
24. John Tyrrell (1996). "Commentary on the Articles of Faith". Archived from the original on August 7, 2007. To believe in the existence of a god is an act of faith. To believe in the nonexistence of a god is likewise an act of faith. There is no verifiable evidence that there is a Supreme Being nor is there verifiable evidence there is not a Supreme Being. Faith is not knowledge. We can only state with assurance that we do not know.
25. B.A. Loftus. "Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance: Apatheism: "Does God exist? I don't know & I don't really care"". Retrieved October 1, 2010.
26. ^ Graham Oppy (September 4, 2006). Arguing about Gods. Cambridge University Press. pp. 15–. ISBN 978-1-139-45889-4.
27. ^ Michael H. Barnes (2003). In The Presence Of Mystery: An Introduction To The Story Of Human Religiousness. Twenty-Third Publications. pp. 3–. ISBN 978-1-58595-259-5.
28. ^ Robin Le Poidevin (October 28, 2010). Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. pp. 32–. ISBN 978-0-19-161454-5.
29. Kenneth, Kramer (1986). World scriptures: an introduction to comparative religions. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8091-2781-8.
30. Subodh Varma (May 6, 2011). "The gods came afterwards". Times of India. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
31. Kenneth Kramer (January 1986). World Scriptures: An Introduction to Comparative Religions. Paulist Press. pp. 34–. ISBN 978-0-8091-2781-8.
32. David Christian (September 1, 2011). Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. University of California Press. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-0-520-95067-2.
33. Upinder Singh (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education India. pp. 206–. ISBN 978-81-317-1120-0.
34. "Sextus Empiricus's Outlines of Pyrrhonism". Archived from the original on February 9, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
35. Gareth Southwell. "Scepticism — History of Scepticism". Philosophyonline.co.uk. Archived from the original on August 26, 2010. Retrieved August 14, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
36. Pyrrho [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]. Iep.utm.edu. June 20, 2012. Archived from the original on February 9, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
37. "Philosophical Connections: Carneades". Philosophos.com. Archived from the original on February 9, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
38. "Aristotle on the existence of God". Logicmuseum.com. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
39. "Internet History Sourcebooks Project". Fordham.edu. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
40. Williams, Thomas, "Saint Anselm", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),
41. "Internet History Sourcebooks Project". Fordham.edu. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
42. Joseph Owens (1980). Saint Thomas Aquinas on the Existence of God: The Collected Papers of Joseph Owens. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-401-3.
43. "Descartes' Proof for the Existence of God". Oregonstate.edu. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
44. Rowe, William L. (1998). "Agnosticism". In Edward Craig (ed.). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-07310-3. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2012. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
45. Kierkegaard, Søren. Philosophical Fragments. Ch. 3
46. Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley. University of Georgia Press. pp. 357–. ISBN 978-0-8203-1864-6.
47. Leonard Huxley (February 7, 2012). Thomas Henry Huxley A Character Sketch. tredition. pp. 41–. ISBN 978-3-8472-0297-4.
48. Leonard Huxley; Thomas Henry Huxley (December 22, 2011). Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley. Cambridge University Press. pp. 347–. ISBN 978-1-108-04045-7.
49. Huxley, Thomas. Collected Essays, Vol. V: Science and Christian Tradition. Macmillan and Co 1893. pp. 237–239. ISBN 1-85506-922-9.
50. Alastair Bonnett 'The Agnostic Saladin' History Today, 2013, 63,2, pp. 47–52
51. William Stewart Ross; Joseph Taylor (1889). Why I Am an Agnostic: Being a Manual of Agnosticism. W. Stewart & Company.
52. Brandt, Eric T., and Timothy Larsen (2011). "The Old Atheism Revisited: Robert G. Ingersoll and the Bible". Journal of the Historical Society. 11 (2): 211–238. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5923.2011.00330.x. {{cite journal}}: |first2= missing |last2= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
53. ^ "Why I Am Agnostic". Infidels.org. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
54. Bertrand Russell (1992). Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-07918-1.
55. ^ Donald E. Smith (February 2012). The Hopeful Agnostic: What I Believe -- I Guess. AuthorHouse. pp. 15–. ISBN 978-1-4685-4459-6. Cite error: The named reference "Smith2012" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
56. Russell, Bertrand. Collected Papers, Vol 10. p. 255.
57. Collected Papers, Vol. 10, p.258
58. Ken Ewell (August 27, 2006). Traveling with Philosophes. iUniverse. pp. 348–. ISBN 978-0-595-85361-8.
59. Bertrand Russell (1997). Last Philosophical Testament: 1943–68. Psychology Press. pp. 91–. ISBN 978-0-415-09409-2.
60. Bertrand Russell (March 2, 2009). The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell. Routledge. pp. 557–. ISBN 978-1-134-02867-2.
61. Victor Robert Farrell. Wake Up! – Dynamite For The Daytime. Lulu.com. pp. 367–. ISBN 978-0-9538864-2-5.
62. "'What Is an agnostic?' by Bertrand Russell". Scepsis.net. Archived from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
63. ^ Leslie D. Weatherhead (September 1990). The Christian Agnostic. Abingdon Press. ISBN 978-0-687-06980-4.
64. "Social values, Science and Technology" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 30, 2011. Retrieved April 9, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
65. "Major Religions Ranked by Size". Adherents.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2010. Retrieved August 14, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
66. "Religion: Year in Review 2010: Worldwide Adherents of All Religions". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. Retrieved November 21, 2013.
67. "Religious Views and Beliefs Vary Greatly by Country, According to the Latest Financial Times/Harris Poll". Financial Times/Harris Interactive. December 20, 2006. Retrieved April 9, 2011.
68. Goodstein, Laurie (December 18, 2012). "Study Finds One in 6 Follows No Religion". The New York Times.
69. Cary Funk, Greg Smith. ""Nones" on the Rise: One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation" (PDF). Pew Research Center. pp. 9, 42. Retrieved November 21, 2013.
70. "Summary of Key Findings" (PDF). Pew Research Center. 2011. Retrieved December 28, 2011. Nearly all adults (92%) say they believe in God or a universal spirit, including seven-in-ten of the unaffiliated. Indeed, one-in-five people who identify themselves as atheist (21%) and a majority of those who identify themselves as agnostic (55%) express a belief in God or a universal spirit.
71. "Summary of Key Findings" (PDF). Pew Research Center. 2011. Retrieved December 28, 2011. Interestingly, a substantial number of adults who are not affiliated with a religion also sense that there is a conflict between religion and modern society – except for them the conflict involves being non-religious in a society where most people are religious. For instance, more than four-inten atheists and agnostics (44% and 41%, respectively) believe that such a tension exists.
72. Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Numbers and Patterns", {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) in Martin 2006, p. 51 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMartin2006 (help)
73. "Cultural Diversity In Australia". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
74. Zuckerman, Phil (2007). Martin, Michael T (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-521-60367-6. OL 22379448M. Retrieved April 9, 2011.
75. "Average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 nations" (PDF). January 3, 2008. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
76. Social values, Science and Technology (PDF). Directorate General Research, European Union. 2005. pp. 7–11. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 30, 2011. Retrieved April 9, 2011. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
77. Sofroniou, Andreas. "Huxley's nonreligious agnosticism". Moral Philosophy, from Hippocrates to the 21st Aeon. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
78. Laurence B. Brown (2007). "Religion of Islam: Agnosticism". Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
79. Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God, from the Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Fr. Ronald Tacelli, SJ, Intervarsity Press, 1994.
80. Ratzinger, Joseph (2007). Jesus of Nazareth. Random House.
81. ^ Ratzinger, Joseph (2005). The Yes of Jesus Christ: Spiritual Exercises in Faith, Hope, and Love. Cross Roads Publishing.
82. ^ "Argument from Pascal's Wager". 2007. Archived from the original on June 5, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
83. ^ Ratzinger, Joseph (2004). Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief And World Religions. Ignatius Press.
84. Benedict XVI, Address at the University of Regensburg 2006
85. ^ Sandro Magister (2007). "Habermas writes to Ratzinger and Ruini responds". Retrieved May 25, 2008.
86. "Why can't I live my life as an agnostic?". 2007. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
87. Ratzinger, Joseph (2006). Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures. Ignatius Press. ISBN 978-1-58617-142-1.
88. Agnosticism, II.,. Catholic Encyclopedia.
89. Agnosticism, VIII. Catholic Encyclopedia.
90. The God Delusion p. 74
91. The God Delusion p. 70
92. "The Argument From Non-Cognitivism". Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved October 1, 2010.
93. Ayer, Language, 115: "There can be no way of proving that the existence of a God ... is even probable. ... For if the existence of such a god were probable, then the proposition that he existed would be an empirical hypothesis. And in that case it would be possible to deduce from it, and other empirical hypotheses, certain experimental propositions which were not deducible from those other hypotheses alone. But in fact this is not possible."
94. Drange, Atheism

Bibliography

• Thomas Huxley (1889) Agnosticism ISBN 1-4400-6878-X
• Robin Le Poidevin, (2010) Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-957526-8
• Thomas Huxley, (1919) Man's Place In Nature, ISBN 0-375-75847-X
• Bertrand Russell, (1779–2009) Why I Am Not a Christian, ISBN 0-671-20323-1
• David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, ISBN 0-14-044536-6
• Immanuel Kant. "Critique of Pure Reason". Retrieved April 17, 2012.
• Søren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments, ISBN 978-0-691-02036-5
• George H. Smith, Atheism, the Case Against God, ISBN 0-87975-124-X

External links

• Albert Einstein on Religion Shapell Manuscript Foundation
• Why I Am An Agnostic by Robert G. Ingersoll, .
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Agnosticism
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
• Agnosticism from INTERS – Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science
• Agnosticism – from ReligiousTolerance.org
• What do Agnostics Believe? – A Jewish perspective
• Fides et Ratio  – the relationship between faith and reason Karol Wojtyla
• For a utilitarian analysis of religion, see The (F)Utility of Religion: Who Needs God(s)?–A Prospective Bible for Non-Believers at http://bradmusil.kramernet.org
• The Natural Religion by Dr Brendan Connolly, 2008
• Nielsen, Kai (1968, 1973). "Agnosticism". Dictionary of the History of Ideas. University of Virginia Library. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
• "Agnosticism" entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Agnosticism at PhilPapers
• Agnosticism at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project

• Agnosticism
• Criticism of religion
• Disengagement from religion
• Epistemological theories
• Secularism
• Philosophical movements
• Philosophy of religion