So someone asked what Agnosticism is, whether its that I believe that the truth is out there and I just don't know what it is, or that the truth is unknowable (regarding God and religion, etc):
I think it is a mixture of both. For me. I also think Agnosticism can often be just another word for confused or "searching". Or that one has "given up". Agnostic is a very broad term, to cover all manners of "almost beliefs". I define myself as Agnostic because I do believe that the truth is unknowable (which is obvious, as religion is based on Faith-which is based on believing what you can't see or know), and I can't see giving my life and soul over to a doctrine, god, or divine anything if its existance can't be proven. However, since the existance of god can't be disproven either, I am not an atheist. I am in the middle, neither convinced nor unconvinced, and not particularly looking to find an answer. Since I am not a religious person, I look to other experiences, people, and literature to shape my "life philosophies". My personal values are very simlar to that of a christian lifestyle (with some significant departures), but the reasons for my values and ethics have nothing to fo with a Bible or church.
This may or may not have cleared anything up, but Agnosticism is as broad a term as Christianity, Islam, Judaism---there is not a definfitive answer to any of them.
And just in case my answer wasn't helpful, here is Wikipedia's!:
Agnosticism (from the Greek a, meaning "without", and Gnosticism or gnosis, meaning "knowledge") is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims—particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of God, gods, deities, or even ultimate reality—is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently unknowable due to the nature of subjective experience.
Agnostics claim either that it is not possible to have absolute or certain knowledge of the existence or nonexistence of God or gods; or, alternatively, that while individual certainty may be possible, they personally have no knowledge. Agnosticism in both cases involves some form of skepticism.
Wow, thanks for replying. I'm pretty interested in philosophy and were people come from religiously/what shapes their views, so I always like hearing people talking about their own beliefs.
This post begs another follow up question. It may seem a little trite, but I've always gotten interesting responses from it.
Isn't the statement "there are no absolutes," an absolute statement?
yes, I suppose it is. Although, I don't believe in NO absolutes-there are things that are certain, as far as I am concerned. For instance, I am definitely sitting in a chair, typingon a keyboard. This is absolute.Now, God is an omnscient being isalways was andalways will be? not so much.
this was very informative thank you for writing it. now i know the difference between atheist and agnostic :)