The
existence of God has been debated emphatically since modern mankind first
looked to the sky and wondered. God is
definable in many ways through countless experiences and accounts. God has been described as the all seeing, all
knowing light of the world. God has been
called limitless and omniscient. The idea of God is not universal. There are other ideas that offer opposing
views of God’s omniscience. Atheism is a belief that God does not exist. ‘Atheism’ means the negation of theism, the
denial of the existence of God (Stanford
Encyclopedia). Agnosticism is a belief that God's existence can
neither be proved nor disproved, on the basis of current evidence(Stanford Encyclopedia). Agnosticism is a concept,
not a full religion, it is a belief related to the existence or non-existence
of God(Stanford Encyclopedia).
To know fully what an Agnostic believes, one must knowingly decipher
what Agnosticism is. Also, it is
important to define God. Furthermore, it
is important to look at notable Agnostics to decipher conclusively what is or
is not knowable.
Agnosticism, as a general term in philosophy, is
frequently employed to express any conscious attitude of doubt, denial,
or disbelief, towards some, or even all, of man's powers of knowing or objects
of knowledge(New Advent) . Modern Agnosticism differs from its ancient
prototype. Its genesis is not due to a
reactionary spirit of protest, and a collection of skeptical arguments, against
"dogmatic systems" of philosophy in vogue,
so much as to an adverse criticism of man's knowing-powers in answer
to the fundamental question: What can we know? The principle idea of Agnosticism can be
summed up as any theory which denies that it is possible for man to acquire knowledge of God(New Advent) . Recent Agnosticism is also to a great extent
anti-religious, criticizing adversely not only the knowledge we have of
God, but the
grounds of belief in Him/or
her as well(New Advent) . The newest theories of Agnostics, regards
religion and science as two
distinct and separate accounts of experience(New Advent) . The term Agnostic can be used in many
different contexts. Some other terms
associated with Agnostics are, Agnostic theists are those who believe that a deity probably
exists. Agnostic atheists believe that
it is very improbable that a deity exists.
Empirical Agnostics believe that God may exist, but that little or
nothing can be known about him/her/it/them(Stanford
Encyclopedia). Still another category are Agnostic Humanists(Stanford Encyclopedia). These individuals are
undecided about the existence of God (Stanford
Encyclopedia). Further, they do not really consider the
question to be particularly important(Stanford
Encyclopedia).
The
term Agnostic was first used by Thomas H. Huxley. Though there are a couple of references in The Oxford English Dictionary to
earlier occurrences of the word ‘agnostic’, it seems(perhaps independently) to
have been introduced by T. H. Huxley at a party in London to found the
Metaphysical Society(Religious Tolerance) . Huxley thought that as many of these people
liked to describe themselves as adherents of various ‘isms’ he would invent one
for himself(Religious Tolerance) . He took it from St. Paul's mention of the
altar to the unknown God in his letter to the Ephesians (Religious
Tolerance) . He combined "a" which implies
negative, with "gnostic" which is a Greek word meaning knowledge (Stanford Encyclopedia). Three main meanings have
been associated with "Agnostic" since Thomas H. Huxley invented the
term in the mid-19th century(Stanford Encyclopedia). Huxley
defined agnosticism as follows: "... it is wrong for a man to say he is
certain of the objective truth of a proposition unless he can provide evidence
which logically justifies that certainty. This is what agnosticism asserts and
in my opinion, is all that is essential to agnosticism." and "... an agnostic is someone who not only
is undecided concerning the existence of God, but who also thinks that the
question of God’s existence is in principle unanswerable. We cannot know whether or not God exists, according to an
agnostic, and should therefore neither believe nor disbelieve in him." (Stanford Encyclopedia). In 1899, he wrote:
"...every man should be able to give a reason for the faith
that is in him; it is the great principle of Descartes; it is the fundamental
axiom of modern science. 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. That I take to be the agnostic faith, which if a man keep whole
and undefiled, he shall not be ashamed to look the universe in the face,
whatever the future may have in store for him (Stanford Encyclopedia).”
He also wrote:
"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; a 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...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... (Stanford
Encyclopedia).”
Thomas H. Huxley is not the only notable Agnostic.
Other Agnostics include Robert G. Ingersoll, Francois M. Arouet, the French 18th century author and
playwright who worked under the pseudonym Voltaire is often considered the
father of Agnosticism (Stanford Encyclopedia), and Bertrand
Russell. Robert G. Ingersoll
is perhaps the most famous American Agnostic of the 19th century. He commented on the problem of theodicy -- the presence of evil in a universe that many
people believe was created and is run by God(Stanford
Encyclopedia). Ingersoll said;
"There is no subject -- and can be none -- concerning which
any human being is under any obligation to believe without evidence...The man
who, without prejudice, reads and understands the Old and New Testaments will
cease to be an orthodox Christian. The intelligent
man who investigates the religion of any country without fear and without
prejudice will not and cannot be a believer....He, who cannot harmonize the
cruelties of the Bible with the goodness of Jehovah, cannot harmonize the
cruelties of Nature with the goodness and wisdom of a supposed Deity. He will find it impossible to account for
pestilence and famine, for earthquake and storm, for slavery, for the triumph
of the strong over the weak, for the countless victories of injustice. He will find it impossible to account for
martyrs -- for the burning of the good, the noble, the loving, by the ignorant,
the malicious, and the infamous." (Stanford Encyclopedia).
Bertrand Russell was a
well known British philosopher of the 20th century. He was arrested during World War I for
anti-war activities(Stanford Encyclopedia). He won the Nobel
prize for literature, and wrote over forty books(Rosten, 1963) . When asked if Agnostics were Atheist, Russell
said “No, an Atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not
there is a God. The Christian holds that
we can know there is a God; an Atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that
there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial.”(Rosten, 1963) . Russell went on to answer questions regarding
the Agnostics views of the Bible and
Jesus, stating that he does not think that it is divinely inspired, and the
teachings of Jesus as told in the Gospels are admirable but no more that those
of other men like the Buddha, Socrates or Abraham Lincoln(Rosten, 1963) .
In
order for an Agnostic to accept the concept of a higher power, the term “God”
needs to be clearly identified. Defining
God is not as simple as it would seem. The
question of knowing God is not the
same as the question of defining it (New Advent) . The two do not stand or fail together(New Advent) . By identifying the two, the Agnostic
confounds "inability to define" with "total inability to know",
which are distinct problems to be treated separately(New Advent) . The Catholic conception
of faith is a firm
assent, on account of the authority of God to revealed truths. It presupposes the philosophical truth that God can
neither deceive nor be deceived, and the historical truth of the
fact of revelation(New Advent) . Faith begins
where science ends. The fact that none of the truths which we
believe on God's authority
contradicts the laws of human
thought or the certainties of natural knowledge shows that
the world of faith is a world
of higher reason. Faith is
consequently an intellectual assent(New Advent) . The word knowledge is restricted to the results of the
exact sciences; the word belief is extended to all that cannot be thus exactly
ascertained(New Advent) . The Agnostic denial of the ability of human reason to know God is
directly opposed to Catholic faith. The Council of the
Vatican solemnly 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"(New Advent) . In short, in order to define the term “God”
an Agnostic needs a clear empirical definition of whom or what “God” is. Since many religions hold very different
meanings for what God is, it would be acceptable to ascertain that “God” is not
definable.
Agnosticism
is a concept that God cannot be defined, and thus the existence of God is unknowable. Agnosticism is usually regarded as radical
skeptic thought and at best is regarded as a fringe belief. It is because of false generalizations that
Agnostics are given a bad rapport. Its
radical classification and apparent skepticism cause Agnosticism to be lumped
together with Atheism and Atheism with Satanist. And further more Agnosticism and outright
Atheism are usually webbed with Socialism (Jacoby, 2004) . Satanic heretics and socialists have
historically been the advisory to the American way of life. Agnostics, however, do not hold such beliefs
and are there for incorrectly identified as “Bad People”. Agnostics
simply reserve the right to reserve judgment on the existence of god until
knowable evidence proving a higher power is found.
Jacoby, S. (2004). Freethinkers: A History of
American Secularism. New York: Metropolitan Books.
New Advent. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2009, from
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01215c.htm
Religious Tolerance. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2009, from
http://www.religioustolerance.org/agnostic.htm
Rosten, L. (1963). Religions of
America: Ferment and Faith in an Age of Crisis. New York: Touchstone
Books.
Stanford Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2009, from
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/
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