Fuck Yeah Agnosticism

indifferentuniverse:

fuckyeahagnosticism:

Actually, there are theist agnostics. There are also agnostics, such as myself, who are neither atheist nor theist. A person can hold a belief without claiming knowledge of if the belief is true.

I know there are theist agnostics. But the “undecided” agnostics are all atheist. You just need to answer the question “Do you believe god exists?”. And the answer to that can only be “yes” or “no”. And if you’re supposedly undecided, the answer is “no”, as is to the answer to the question “Do you believe god doesn’t exist?”.

But as soon as you lack a belief in god, you’re an atheist.

I see that you are using a different definition of “atheist” than I do personally, and I’d like to say that I really appreciate the identity-term prescriptivism going on here. I don’t take a prescriptivist position on identity terms as you do because I’m much more postmodern than that, so I’ll do you a favor and share my experiences to show you why I describe myself as a non-theist non-atheist agnostic, or a “radically skeptical agnostic,” as one of my professors has described me.

In response to the question “Do you believe god exists?” I cannot give a clear answer for the reason that I don’t have a coherent understanding of what a “god” would be. In terms of the qualities of the Abrahamic god, I can say I don’t believe in that god-concept, but there are many other god-concepts that are also called gods, and it is unclear what makes all of them fall into the category of “god.” I don’t have an understanding of what a god is that is separate from individual god-concepts, so while I can say that I don’t hold belief in any of the god-concepts that have been presented to me, I can’t claim to any knowledge of what “god” means, or of what makes any being called a god fall into the category of “god.” “God” is not an intelligible concept to me at this point in time, so I don’t know whether I believe in any god or not.

I can’t say a simple “yes” or “no” in response to “Do you believe in god?” This is what makes me an agnostic that falls in neither the atheist agnostic category nor the theist agnostic category.

I self-describe as agnostic also because I feel more comfortable in agnostic communities than in atheist communities. I hold many beliefs that are incompatible with a reductive materialist view of the universe, and I find that people in agnostic communities are more accepting of my views, even if they individually disagree with them. So despite that I live my life as if atheism and reductive materialism are the case, such a lifestyle is only pragmatic, because I would like it if neither were the case.

Regarding theist agnostics, such as Immanuel Kant, they generally respond “Yes” to the question “Do you believe in god?” but what makes such theistic people agnostic is that they do not, or cannot, state arguments concluding that their belief is true, although they may privately hope or feel they have an intuitive sense that their belief is true.

I hope that the response I have provided above has not been in vain. Please feel welcome to use fuckyeahagnosticism’s ask box if you want to further engage me or this community on this topic.