An agnostic claims that it is not possible to confirm the existence of God, although it cannot be denied either.
In order to understand the meaning of the term agnostic , the first thing we have to explain is that it is a word that derives from Greek. Specifically, it is the result of the sum of several components of said language:
-The prefix “a-”, which translates as “without”.
-The noun “gnosis”, which means “knowledge”.
-The suffix “-tikos”, which is used to indicate “relative to”.
It is considered that the term agnosticism as such was created by the English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 – 1895). Specifically, he coined it in 1869, although there are theories that establish that perhaps it, although the term as such did not yet exist, was the work of other previous authors. Thus, it is determined that agnostic origins can already be found in relevant figures such as Protagoras, for example.
Concept of agnostic
Agnostic is an adjective that qualifies what is linked to agnosticism : a philosophical position that maintains that divine questions and that which goes beyond experience escape the understanding of human beings. Agnostic individuals, therefore, affirm that the divine is not accessible to human understanding .
Agnostics, in the broadest sense, believe that certain statements cannot be analyzed from truth values . According to logic , something can be true or false. For agnostics, expressions linked to metaphysical and religious themes cannot be subjected to this consideration since they are not knowable.
Agnostics state that the existence or nonexistence of God goes beyond human understanding.
Differences with atheism
Typically, agnosticism is declared based on reflection on the existence, or not, of God. The agnostic maintains that he is not in a position to affirm the existence of God, but nor to deny it : what he does is leave belief in suspense since the existence of God is not susceptible to consideration according to criteria of truthfulness and falsehood. In other words: the existence or non-existence of God escapes the understanding of human beings .
This position is different from that held by atheists . Those who defend atheism do not believe in the existence of God . In some cases, we speak of agnostic atheists since they do not believe in the existence of God but acknowledge that they are not in a position to know if, in fact, a deity exists.
Various types of agnostics
There are those who are classified, on the other hand, as weak agnostics . These subjects currently believe that the existence of God is beyond human understanding, although they leave open the possibility that this judgment will change in the future based on new evidence.
In the same way, we cannot ignore the existence of other types of agnosticism such as the following:
-The strong or strict agnostic, who makes it clear that neither he nor any other person can know whether or not a deity exists.
-Agnostic theism, which is characterized because it claims not to know the existence of a deity but, in any case, believes in it.
-Pragmatic agnosticism. He also responds to the name of pragmatist and does not give importance to the existence or not of a deity, considering that even if he existed he would be indifferent to the well-being of human beings and the universe in general.