Gnostic or Agnostic?

Gnosticism is a pretty ancient belief system, but I don't know if there are many people alive today who adhere to it. Literally the word just means that you have the knowledge, whereas a+gnostic means you do not have the knowledge. I'm not entirely sure what you mean to ask though.

 

Can you qualify what you mean by gnostic atheist? If it's that you assign a really low chance to a god existing, then sure, but if it's that you know (for certain) that there is no such thing, that's untenable.

I'm an ignostic, for the record.

 

Apatheist. I've given up on trying to disprove the existence of god, because it simply can't be done. Yet you can't prove that god exists either, despite the fact that 97% of Americans believe in some form of a deity, although 20% of Americans don't identify with any organized religion.

Yes, my username says otherwise, but I'm an apatheist, meaning I don't care whether there's a god or not. Agnosticism means you don't know, atheist means you say there is none, apatheism means you just don't give a shit.

 

Well I don't know what you mean, dude....and apparently neither does anyone else here. You must elaborate on exactly what you mean by describing yourself as a "gnostic atheist". "Gnostic" is not a term that is often used to modify "atheist"; historically Gnosticism was a very spiritual worldview.

 

I'm agnostic.

By "gnostic atheist" are you saying that you "have the knowledge" that there is no god? It's what you suggest. Some clarification would help, I've never heard those two words used together.

 

Gnosticism with a capital G was an early branch of Christianity.

Gnosticism with a lowercase G is a current term meaning "I think it is possible to have absolute knowledge on supernatural matters" or "I can prove deities do/do not exist". Its opposite is agnosticism, which means "I think it is impossible to have absolute knowledge on supernatural matters" or "I cannot prove deities do/do not exist".

Most people who describe themselves as gnostic or agnostic do so in conjunction with describing themselves as theistic or atheistic.

* A gnostic theist believes in a god (or gods) and believes they can prove that that god exists.
* An agnostic theist believes in a god but doesn't believe they can prove that that god exists. (Sometimes they don't believe that anyone can; they consider the matter unknowable.)
* An agnostic atheist doesn't believe in gods but doesn't believe they can prove that there are none. (They may also consider the matter unknowable.)
* A gnostic atheist doesn't believe in gods and believes they can prove that there are none. Sam's got it -- they believe they have the knowledge that there are no gods.

Most self-described atheists and agnostics are agnostic atheists -- they don't believe, but they don't know for sure.

The question is, Whether you believe in gods or not, do you believe their existence is or can be proven true or false?

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'S a pretty interesting question, and hopefully less likely to result in a religious debate. Personally, I'm agnostic when it comes to most gods, e.g. Thor, but I believe I can have absolute knowledge that certain gods don't exist because they are in contradiction with themselves or with the world around us. I describe myself as agnostic, though.

 

Thanks, that's cleared it up! In those terms I would identify as an agnostic atheist then, since it seems clear there isn't a way to test god currently, and I'm not sure there ever will be, yet I wouldn't believe unless there was overwhelming evidence or god decided to hang out with me (mind you, I'd still be sceptical then, given the neuroscience of NDEs and also veil of perception etc.)

 

I'm as agnostic toward a deity as I am toward unicorns, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or the cosmic tea pot between Earth and Mars. Meaning I don't think we can prove that no deities exist, but I don't regard their existence as all that probable.

 

I am an agnostic deist.

 

I'm agnostic, but if you can prove to me somehow that God exists or doesn't exist, then that's cool. I wouldn't say I'm a full blown agnostic atheist, because I honestly don't know if there's a God or not.

 

Then I guess I'm an agnostic agnostic..

 

Once when I described my position on 'god' someone pointed out that my position sounded like ignosticism. I looked it up and thought that particular label lined up with my views fairly well.

 

Just looked up ignosticism myself.

Well, that's two things I've learned from this thread!

 

Welcome to the Grand Church of Ignosticism, please leave your donations in the basket. :smilewave

 

Well, in most other things I'm willing to acknowledge human perception probably has narrow limits, so why wouldn't I do it with the concept of god?

I'm beginning to like ignosticism :icon_bigg