Agnosticism is NOT a system of belief.

[Landwhale]

Your point #2 is as if I were talking to a child...

which is why you have a reasonable response to it? right.

tell the prominent philosophers who make those claims about religious "morality" that theyre childish.

acting in order to save your own skin from hell is NOT morality. you are an ignorant fool if you think it is.

i also noticed you have nothing to say about #1, which is actually ON topic. #2 is just about whether or not agnosticism is a life-style (i.e it actaully affects your life) or not.

[xGLxAnubis]

An Atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support - John Buchan
Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them - Peter Ustinov
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. - Carl Sagan
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you from asking the questions. - Frater Ravus

And 1 last common sense quote
I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road. - Stephen Hawking


And to those christians that "supposedly" don't push their religion onto others...
Do not pray in my school, and I will not think in your church. - Unknown author

Quoting people, famous or otherwise, does not make an argument, let alone a good one. Just because a famous or smart person said it, doesn't make it true nor relevant.

[Fuzzzie]

Please keep it civil. If you have to resort to name calling to make a point then your point probably isn't very good.

[Zyzzyx]

I hate people who think middle grounds don't exist, and then think they're absolutely correct because they know how to read. You can think all you want that you're superior to everyone because you know that "yes" and "no" exist, but some people don't care. Is there an ultimate creator? Maybe. In your mind, that means "no". In my mind, I don't give a wet slap what you think. Definitions and dictionaries be damned, some people can think for themselves.

There may or may not be a God, or ten Gods. I don't know, and I don't care.

[Badpaladin]

Since then many current philosophers have held that belief system, including EINSTEIN.

EINSTEIN was a self proclaimed agnostic. I guess you people who think agnosticism doesn't exist are smarter than Einstein huh?

Go take a class on religion, your ignorance is daunting.

He must not have been a good one then. Lemaitre's(you know, the catholic priest) idea of the Big Bang was shot down because Einstein refused to believe such a thing existed. "Your math is correct, but your physics is abominable" are his words.

[xGLxAnubis]

I hate people who think middle grounds don't exist, and then think they're absolutely correct because they know how to read. You can think all you want that you're superior to everyone because you know that "yes" and "no" exist, but some people don't care.

And I can think the thing protruding from face directly under my eyes is called 'a bacon'. Does that make me right?

[RabbitPrime]

which is why you have a reasonable response to it? right.

tell the prominent philosophers who make those claims about religious "morality" that theyre childish.

acting in order to save your own skin from hell is NOT morality. you are an ignorant fool if you think it is.

You made a blanket statement that all religious people only follow morals to avoid a punishment. However, there are several religions which do not threaten their followers with punishment. There are many religions which lack a concept of "hell". You have no religious education aside from what mommy and daddy taught you. You've not even bothered to explore alternate religious doctrines. You have no grounds to accuse every many of faith or religion of acting only to avoid reprimand (which EVERY HUMAN BEING on the planet is ALSO doing). You have no grounds to claim that only religious peoples follow a moral code to avoid negative consequences.

[imho]

changing a little the way of this forum...

if i think Darwin Theory is true... a im being atheist beacause a can't think about god create us?

sorry english is not my native language

[vindicatorx]

Gnostic the...oh, you were only asking agnostics =(

Very true point, at least. I know a lot of people who claim to be agnostic as a way of saying "I don't believe in God but don't want you to yell at me for it." Pretty cheap method, for every reason you listed. Still, religious topics aren't going to go well, even if they are about not having any. Except a lock forthwith.

Its easier than saying I don't believe in your definition of god. The only thing that can be proved to be infinite is numbers. So in my opinion everything that has a begning has an end. What started that begining is the question I can not answer and for that reason alone I can't dismiss the possiblity of a higher power but do I believe that Jesus died for my sins? No. Ergo I don't believe in the "approved" versions of god. My person opinion on religion is its a method of control over the population. By this I mean in order to make unruly people conform by teaching them about a man in the sky who knows all sees all and will send you to a really bad place when you die if you are bad.

[Gnarwhalz]

In regards to theology, I tend to classify myself as an Absurdist.

[LeGnome]

No god. I've not seen one and neither has anyone else. Everything that happens can be explained away with science, when you fathom the sheer number of stars and planets in the Universe, the very notion of such a being becomes particularly ludicrous.

[Propainn]

To be complacent in not knowing is to be dead. There is only wisdom in knowing that you know nothing if you also seek to discover that which you do not know. That is the real meaning of that statement. All of humanity's progress has one thing in common: discovery. If as a species we were complacent in knowing that we know nothing, we'd be dead.

This is true when it comes to tangible discoveries, but when dealing with the metaphysical things change. We simply do not know the answer to the question "Does a god exist?" with 100% certainty at this point in human history. We cannot come to a conclusion until God chooses. In other words, we cannot discover god. We are discussing the existence of a supernatural being, not discovering electricity. Apples and oranges.

[zorkuus]

I just have to stop posting in here because there are such absurd amounts of ignorance on the origins of agnosticism, it's actually making me upset.

Those of you who don't think that "agnosticism" can be a belief system, you are HIGHLY uneducated in the subject.

Agnosticism is a current and highly regarded system of beliefs originating from darwinian beliefs. It became defined, again, in 1867. Since then many current philosophers have held that belief system, including EINSTEIN.

EINSTEIN was a self proclaimed agnostic. I guess you people who think agnosticism doesn't exist are smarter than Einstein huh?

Go take a class on religion, your ignorance is daunting.

Einstein was nothing more than a self proclaimed pantheist. That is not to say that pantheism cannot have any connection with agnosticism but he certainly didn't proclaim to be just an agnostic.

I guess you people who think agnosticism doesn't exist are smarter than Einstein huh?

Whether or not agnosticism exists or is what you think it is, an appeal to authority does nothing in helping to establish your argument.

[Penatar]

Do you believe in a higher power? No? You're an atheist.

Do you believe in a higher power? Yes? Then you're one over over 10,000 religions.

Do you believe in a higher power? "I don't want to offend either side no matter what I believe, because I'm afraid to be outcast by putting my foot down and asserting something that I think defines me." You're an agnostic.

[Device]

He must not have been a good one then. Lemaitre's(you know, the catholic priest) idea of the Big Bang was shot down because Einstein refused to believe such a thing existed. "Your math is correct, but your physics is abominable" are his words.

You're talking like the Big Bang is a fact while it is a theory and thus can be shot down if you have arguments.

[Deleted]

Being theist/atheist describes your position with regards to religious beliefs and concepts.
Thiest: Believes in the existance of a God or Gods.
Atheist: Does not accept theistic claims. In other words, is not a theist.

Actually, Atheist is an old Greek word which means that the person in question is discarding the beliefs of the general public of the society he or she lives in. By that logic a person in USA (which general belief is Christianity) who believes in Buddhism, is by definition an atheist.
Anyway that was off topic, on topic i can surely see the logic in agnostic, that we're not gods (hehe) we can't know everything for sure, so the notion that we should be able to completely discard the idea of a deity because we can't prove it is impossible.
But on the other hand belief is a tricky subject, i myself define myself as an atheist of the definition the OP stated, sure i can't know for sure whether or not there's a deity because i obviously can't prove it to be wrong, but to me that is irrelevant information, what is relevant is what i know now, or what i think i know.

To me belief is something the brain made up back in the day, back when life was harder than it is today, I can picture me being a theist if i lived like in the stone age, working all day just to survive. People needed the comfort that someone was looking over them, so their minds made it up. It sounds logical to me that humanity was "performing" (so to speak) better if they had a sense of security in times of great insecurity, then evolution would "come up" with a solution to the problem.
Humans are intellectual beings, and if an intellectual being couldn't cope with the daily life in the stone age, then we wouldn't be here today.

Bottom line, I don't think it's a coincidence that every known "tribe" or every civilization in history have had some kind of deity, religion has always been a part of humanity.

anyway that's my take on this matter, hope no one is offended but this is my opinion, so.

[Arov]

Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable.

[Grimmz86]

I'd just like to take a second here to thank BadPaladin for noting that not all of us theists are in fact, insane.

I'm finding it a disturbing trend lately that anyone who has any belief in god is "LOLUSODUMB" or "READABOOKMORON". I understand and respect your beliefs, please do the same for mine.

Back to my original point. BadPaladin, you rock.

[zorkuus]

You're talking like the Big Bang is a fact while it is a theory and thus can be shot down if you have arguments.

A scientific theory is not a guess. Theories explain facts. Sure a theory can be replaced by another theory but the fact still remains, the new theory just explains the fact better/in a different way than the old one.

[Deleted]

Do you believe in a higher power? Yes? Then you're one over over 10,000 religions.

Are you sure? I was not aware that believing in the possibility of the existence of some kind of higher being means I have to part of a specific faith.

Religion is a man made system.

Do you believe in a higher power? "I don't want to offend either side no matter what I believe, because I'm afraid to be outcast by putting my foot down and asserting something that I think defines me." You're an agnostic.

This one just made you look really shallow.