Quite the controversial subject, it’s hard to even pin down an exact definition of what it is to be agnostic – and that’s because there isn’t one.
With religion already being one of the most sensitive subjects so that many of us don’t even want to put a finger on it, it has become increasingly popular to call oneself agnostic. Usually, when one hears this, we assume he means that he just doesn’t know if there is a God or not.
(Before we continue, it is important to note that essentially agnosticism is not a religious belief in and of itself. It is, in fact, the opposite. It is the lack of knowledge. The reason atheism and theism are religious viewpoints is because of their adamancy in saying that they know if there is or is not an existing God.)
At this point, a number of critics start closing in on these “so-called agnostics”, claiming that it’s just an easy way to get out of a potential argument, or even a solid lifestyle choice, and it puts them in a safe zone. This gray area of religious exemption has a more broad sense when it is thought of as simply saying, “I can’t be right or wrong.” But beneath this, it is more than just not choosing a side.
There are numerous subcategories of agnosticism, which is what many fail to realize and instead put themselves in a big bubble floating above the rest of the world that has already “picked a side”, to say it in a broader sense. The issue with being agnostic usually stems from the fact that while one says that we cannot know for sure, a hundred questions then arise.
Who is it that doesn’t know? You, the agnostic? Or everyone, regardless of religion? And then, we must differentiate between knowing and believing. We can all claim to not know anything, but we all must believe something, one way or another. As many times and in as many situations that we might say we have no opinion, or we don’t care when we get down to it, we do. At least a little bit. Even if it’s one little notch more towards one end of the spectrum against the other, we have a preferable choice about everything in the end.
Generally, he who calls himself agnostic should actually be calling himself an agnostic theist. This constitutes those who say things like, “I don’t know what kind of God is out there or who it might be.” In this statement alone, we have already narrowed him down. By saying that he doesn’t know what kind of God there may be, he is affirming the fact that he believes there is a God. His statement is that he doesn’t know what kind. He has defined himself as an agnostic theist: one who believes that there is a deity or multiple deities for the matter, but that there is no way of knowing what, who, how, et cetera.
This is contrasted with agnostic atheism, which states that even though there is no hard evidence and one cannot know if there is a God, the agnostic atheist does not believe in one. This concept is slightly more resolute than its counterpart since it has at least arrived at a confirmed belief. Atheists, in general, can fall under this category, regardless of what they may or may not know since it is the belief itself that defines the religion.
This is where many get confused. Do we know or do we believe in something? One could take a philosophical turn, in this case, but we won’t delve so deep. The difference, in short, is that while you may believe in something, you don’t necessarily know it. As Socrates had said, “All I know is that I know nothing.” Likewise, the division between atheists and agnostics more specifically is that atheists claim to both know and believe there is not a God, while agnostics are (mainly) split between one or the other.
There is also a smaller category slightly separate, known as ignosticism, in which one declares that the argument over the existence of a deity is completely incomprehensible because the term “God” has yet to be clearly defined.
Essentially, to be simply agnostic leaves things quite open-ended. As with atheism and theism alike, there are subsections. But to just say that you are “agnostic” won’t be good enough anymore. The question is: what do you believe? And what do you know?
