Related Information to Agnostic

Agnostic

What is your view about people that declare themselves Agnostic? Is it that they are fence sitters, waiting for a miracle or just playing it safe? Is the current state of the world and religion creating more agnostics or are people just unsure about life and divinity in general? Do you think more people are agnostic than they care to admit?

Agnostic

Technically, I guess I should not be the one to respond to this thread since I am one of the people who claim to be agnostic. But the tempting offer of being able to defend by belief, or rather lack there of, drew me in.

Atheism requires a belief. It requires the belief that God does not exist. Therefore I cannot be an atheist since I cannot truly believe that God does not exist simply because I cannot see it. I never see the wind, but I know it and the air composing it do exist because I am alive and my hair waves in the wind.

I cannot hail to any one religion, since they almost all claim to be the only way, and I cannot hail to one single entity as God since one has never revealed itself to me. I actually spent my entire life in the church and found that it was a great place for an emotional experience.

So as you see, I would have to believe either way, and I cant. Belief requires acceptance and conviction, I have neither when it comes to the existence of God. Agnostic are not 'fence sitters' simply because we don't accept common beliefs on God. The very idea of choosing a side without having solid evidence (as perceive by the hearer or seer) seems perplexing to most of us agnostics. We tend to weight things in more logical or scientific terms. Both believers and atheist require an accepted belief on the matter despite the amount of evidence or lack of evidence on the two 'sides of the fence'.

Agnostic Beliefs Religious General

If people wish to sit on the side lines let them however a lot of people do not know the difference between atheism and agnostic. However Konquererz has described wonderfully so I don't have to. People that are agnostic don't really know what to believe so they sit on the sidelines. As regards to them waiting for a miracle aren't we all!

Agnostic

You would ringfence me as an agnostic, because at the moment I don't believe in god or a 'Higher being'.

In my eyes I am just 'Non religious' is there a word for that?

I don't sit on the fence as you say, at the moment I 'don't' believe there is a God.

But I have an open mind and if someone could prove without doubt that there is or that they are God, then I would hop over the fence to the other side, and believe.

But would that mean I was religious? Just because I believed there was a god, would I have to follow his teachings?

I don't think I would. But that is just me

Agnostic

In my opinion:

What you believe is eternal (has always existed and will always exist) is your God. If you believe nothing is eternal then everything had a beginning. If everything had a beginning then you have to get something from nothing. Something from nothing violates the Laws of Logic. If you believe matter is eternal than you are a Material Monist (science). If you believe spirit is eternal than you are a Spiritual Monist (Budism). If you believe in a combination you are a Dualist (Ancient Greeks). Finally, you can believe matter and spirit were created than you are a Theist (Judaism).

Agnostic

Pocket,

Your statements are intriguing and deserve discussion, but this particular thread is for discussion of the people who claim to be agnostic.
As stated by Neo's original post:

What is your view about people that declare themselves Agnostic?

Is it that they are fence sitters, waiting for a miracle or just playing it safe?

Is the current state of the world and religion creating more agnostics or are people just unsure about life and divinity in general?

Do you think more people are agnostic than they care to admit?

I have opened a new thread HERE to discuss your topic regarding Agnostic.

Agnostic

I identify myself as agnostic on these boards since my specific beliefs regarding the existence or non-existence of a higher power are not covered by the terms "atheist" or "theist". My differing opinion rests not with questions of epistemology, as with many, but with semantics.
I believe that, if there is a referent for the term "God", it must transcend all of our concepts, hence it must also transcend our concepts of "existence" and "non-existence". In this sense, both "God exists" and "God does not exist" are ultimately meaningless statements and so my belief in what situation may actually exist cannot be classified by that distinction.

A rather interesting opinion on the existence of Agnostics was stated by Penn Jillette (a very vocal atheist) on his radio show. To paraphrase (as I do not have a transcript from which to quote), he said that to say you are Agnostic does not answer the question of whether or not you believe in God; that you can be an Agnostic atheist or an Agnostic theist, but applying the qualifier "Agnostic" merely indicates that you are uncertain as to whether or not your opinion holds true in reality.

I believe there are a lot of people who are not completely certain regarding the existence or nonexistence of God, but who do not identify as Agnostic because of their social surroundings, their culture, their heritage or their belief that it is not necessary to be certain in order to follow their religion.

Agnostic General Religious Beliefs

I have often found that a true Agnostic will just say "I do not know" or "I do not have an opinion". A true Agnostic will question everything but form no opinion so as to be biased until and that is the key until they have found evidence that satisfies their mind - another key word (satisfies). Since things can be made to be illusionary or seem like fact (the world being flat rather than round) one must believe it for themselves for it to be true - this is the first order of belief I think. In other words, if you believe it is 'x' then it must be 'x'? No so simple right? Of course, just because someone believes it is 'x' does not make it truth. So the true Agnostic will be a seeker of truth, they want the facts, they do not want opinions, because they are not willing to fall on the aspect of mere belief. In this world of new age movements and technology I can understand why some think like this, however there are very few Agnostics.

The following is my experience with those claiming the title 'Agnostic':

I think most self-proclaimed Agnostics are either drifting towards a belief or they are really Atheists. The ones that are leaning towards a belief system find themselves 'feeling' and that is the key word there (feeling) that there is something more than what they can prove or find proof to, however, they feel themselves silly and thus take no sides because it is safe to do so.

The other kind, the Atheist, or should I say the one that is really an Atheist but does not want to be labeled as such will find himself not wanting to show any kind of interest in the possibility of a Supreme being, but on the other hand uses their position of there being no God to show why they have a right to argue it.

The first I believe is more of an Agnostic, the latter I think is not a true Agnostic because they are already taking up a position. In all what I am saying is I doubt anyone can be true Neutral, one must after a time of an investigation draw a conclusion, if they cannot then the earlier term of 'fence sitter' may be applicable.