Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Big_Bird]

Is agnosticism anything more than a polite, or cowardly veil around atheism?

[reactionary]

I consider myself agnostic because yes, I am not certain. If you want to call me an atheist, go right ahead. That certainly doesn't offend me.

If there's a god, great.

If there isn't, oh well.

I can sit and listen to believers and "hard" atheists argue all day, I don't really care in the end.

[RACETRAITOR]

Agnostics seem to usually not believe religion, but while throwing out the religion they hold onto the notion that there's some truth to the idea of a god.

[samcheokguy]

agnostics argue that they are not athiests...as a God's existance, is defined in ways, it could never be proven or disproven. In other words an athiest feels that believing in God is a sign of stupidity, while an agnostic simply says there are not enough grounds to convince him of the existance of God.
-In other words If you are blind, there is really no convincing way to show you what colors are. However, a blind person doesn't argue 'color' does not exist. The agnostic is a blind guy saying "I wish I could get into this whole color thing." The Dawkins Athiest is saying "Colors? Are a myth, made to enslave MAN!"

[AgDragon01]

An Atheist is someone who does not have a positive believe in God. This get's confusing because of the Greek. In the Greek -' Atheist' can either refer to someone who believes in a positive statement, namely, that God does not exist (strong atheism) or a person who is simply not a theist (weak atheism).

An agnostic is someone who literally 'does not know.' - The lack of 'knowing' can be ascribed to anything - In religious circles there are two notable kinds - an agnostic theist, someone who believes in the existence of God, but that the nature of God cannot be known (i.e., you cannot ascribed specific qualities to him because he's too great for the human mind to comprehend), and an agnostic atheist, namely a weak atheist - someone who simply does not have a positive belief in God, but doesn't go as far as to say that God does not exist.

Agnostic itself can be broken into strong and weak forms. The strong form referring to someone who says that we can never know, and the weak form referring to a lack of knowledge right now, allowing for it's possibility in a future time. I have seen this description of strong and weak agnosticism in a few texts, but I don't think it's widely used.

[shifter2009]

I consider myself one as I think the flat out rejection of the idea of a god or gods is equally as arrogant as the absolute belief in the crazy ass religions we already came up with. With the universe being as vast and complicated as it is and us knowing so little I think it's best to just acknowledge our lack of knowledge and be humble in that.

[blurgalurgalurga]

Gnostic means 'somebody who knows,' coming from the Greek 'gnosis' (knowledge) and 'agnostic' means 'somebody who doesn't know.'
Wikipedia says, "'Agnostic' was introduced by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1860 to describe his philosophy which rejects Gnosticism, by which he meant not simply the early 1st millennium religious group, but all claims to spiritual or mystical knowledge."

It makes sense to me. If you know there's no god, you're atheist; if you know there is a god, you're some sort of theist; if you don't know, you're an agnostic.

I'm one. I'm pretty sure all the religions are barking up the wrong tree, but it seems premature to deny the possibility that there are some sorts of god or godlike (goddy? goddish? god-esque? gaudy?) critters out there somewhere, or some-when.

As for it being a case of different temperments latching on to certain terms, that's probably true. I'm a fence-sitter in many regards. I like it that way. Sometimes I tell people I'm an atheist, if they ask me; other times I call myself agnostic. It's a mood thing, and also it depends on who's asking. If it's a theist I like, I'll say I'm agnostic; if it's a theist I don't like, I tell them I'm an Atheist (or sometimes I'll lie and tell them I belong to some religion in opposition to their own).

Atheists don't usually ask me what my religion is.

Anyway, there's different types of agnostic, too, so it seems to be one of those vague terms that can mean any number of things. I read it on the internest so it must be so.

[AgDragon01]

[blurgalurgalurga]

I'm an aaaaaayyytheist...my God looks like Fonzie

[ED209]

[dragon777]

All I can say is thank God for atheism!!!

[Sergio Stefanuto]

An agnostic, by definition, is one who doesn't know. It follows that everyone is an agnostic. Nobody knows whether God exists or not.

Agnostic is therefore a highly trivial term. To say one is agnostic is to say absolutely nothing.

We are all also agnostic about the existence of magic elves. They might exist - who knows?

However, the arguments against magic elves' existence are overwhelming and so too God in my view. If something doesn't make any sense, or fails to do the explanatory job it intends, this is an excellent reason not to believe it exists. Agnosticism is - literally - "I dunno" but de facto is a contemptible shrug of indifference and, contrary to what the agnostic might think, not particularly worthy of respect.

[Privateer]

I don't know. I'm not sure really.

[Robot_Teacher]

It appears most today outside of Islam and Buddhism are agnostic as I am too. They don't normally attend church services, but leave it open that their possibly is a God, but see no evidence of such a thing. It appears religion is a human invention to band aid up the emotional damages the rich and accidental mishaps causes the world since the days of Christ over 2000 years ago. People have worshiped in faith and meditated since the beginning seeking emotional relief from the struggles of being human in an imperfect world. You go to church for emotional help with mourning over losses as well as to seek redemption in repenting the unethical things you've done. Church is the social system for our emotional sanity. I'm sure it helped to bring Europe and America to age through all the hard times just as Buddhism helps many Asian people suffer the hardships of living in an unfair world fraught with corruptions, inequalities, and too low pay. I believe religion is an invention to serve the purpose of humanity paying homage to the sufferings of life via the belief there is a wise creator who just got it slightly all wrong, but ended up with one beautiful experiment in the making; the Earth, the life, and the universe that appears to go on and on into infinity through our Hubble telescope.

[shifter2009]