Thursday, March 24, 2011

Agnostic Atheism

Atheism is a belief that there is no God while theism is a belief that there is a God. Agnosticism is not so clear. It does not seem to be a belief at all but a claim that one lacks the knowledge to make a decision. Most agnostics would agree that either God exists or does not exist because if God were in some sort of in between state that would still have to be categorized as existence. What they seem to mean is that God either exist or does not exist but I cannot or do not claim to know. It seems that all agnostics then would lean one way or the other as far as their beliefs, but are reluctant to say that these feelings which are not based on knowledge have relevance in what is or is not true. People can hold beliefs that are not true, but if they know that they may not be true it would be difficult to maintain their view with any level of conviction. This makes it seem like agnostic atheists would be infirm atheists and the same would be true of agnostics. An important aspect of this discussion becomes what the difference is between knowledge and belief. It is only if these are sufficiently different that an agnostic and atheistic or agnostic and theistic viewpoint can be held at the same time. If knowledge is the result of learning and reasoning then one could easily claim that there is no way to know for sure whether God exists. They could also say that they feel it is true or false despite lacking a reasoned outlook. If belief is developed through intuition, enculturation or another method then beliefs are not the same as knowledge because reason is not a necessary component. Maybe it could be said that an agnostic atheist believes that God does not exist and admits that they do not and cannot have a way to justify this belief. An agnostic theist would then feel that God exists but would not have a way to justify this belief.  
If agnosticism is not a middle ground between atheism and theism could someone claim to be neither an atheist nor theist? Is it possible to hold no belief about God?     

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