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Atheist or Agnostic?

Silicon

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Which word do you describe yourself as?



Previous to now, I've described myself as Agnostic. As in the common idea of someone sitting on the fence with an open mind about God's existence. I still feel that way, but I've been starting to call myself an athiest. First off, I don't like the apologetic use of the word agnostic, as if It's my job not to piss off believers. And second off, I don't think there's anything inacurate about calling myself an atheist.

I follow no Gods. I am an Atheist. What's wrong with that?









I'm the number 2 definition below. I believe that the number 1 definition below is the result of believers writing our definition for us:



atheist

\A"the*ist\, n. [Gr. ? without god; 'a priv. + ? god: cf. F. ath['e]iste.] 1. One who disbelieves or denies the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being.

2. A godless person. [Obs.]





ag·nos·tic ( P ) Pronunciation Key (g-nstk)
n.

One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.
One who is doubtful or noncommittal about something.

adj.
Relating to or being an agnostic.
Doubtful or noncommittal: “Though I am agnostic on what terms to use, I have no doubt that human infants come with an enormous ‘acquisitiveness’ for discovering patterns” (William H. Calvin).


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[a-1 + Gnostic.]
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ag·nosti·cal·ly adv.
Word History: An agnostic does not deny the existence of God and heaven but holds that one cannot know for certain whether or not they exist. The term agnostic was fittingly coined by the 19th-century British scientist Thomas H. Huxley, who believed that only material phenomena were objects of exact knowledge. He made up the word from the prefix a-, meaning “without, not,” as in amoral, and the noun Gnostic. Gnostic is related to the Greek word gnsis, “knowledge,” which was used by early Christian writers to mean “higher, esoteric knowledge of spiritual things” hence, Gnostic referred to those with such knowledge. In coining the term agnostic, Huxley was considering as “Gnostics” a group of his fellow intellectuals“ists,” as he called themwho had eagerly embraced various doctrines or theories that explained the world to their satisfaction. Because he was a “man without a rag of a label to cover himself with,” Huxley coined the term agnostic for himself, its first published use being in 1870.
 
I have no religious beliefs, I'm also very negative and cynical, that makes me an atheist. :)
 
Silicon said:
Which word do you describe yourself as?
Click to expand...


How about 'a theist', said in a speed such that people don't know if I'm saying 'atheist' or 'a theist'. That probably expresses my stance the best.
 
Atheist.

I went through a period of calling myself agnostic for most of my teenage years. I think that was mostly to cushion the blow to my theistic friends that I thought their beliefs were silly. Eventually, I started calling myself atheist when asked, and felt I was being more honest.

(as an added bonus, few of my theistic friends cared that much what I believed)
 
I think this topics been done to death and a search would find what the majority of us consider ourselves to be.

For the record, my full user ID is UnrepentantSinnerAtheist. And no, I'm not a Baptist trying to be ironic. ;)
 
The original gnostics were the Cathars (from catharsis) who were scrubbed out in the third century as their beliefs were thought to be heretical.

Remeber god loves you!
 
I remember, way back when, my "soft" versus "hard" atheism thread (which was a spirited discussion, I might add).

What I got out of that thread is that there really isn't much of a distinction between agnostic and atheist. In fact, there really isn't any. By being unsure of the existence of any type of god(s), you are, in essence, lacking a belief in any type of god(s).

My thought journey when I came to these forums was to ascertain if there was any definition of "god" that was both logically consistent and plausible. I never really believed in the "big babysitter in the sky" god, even when I was a Catholic. I was very interested in learning what different people thought god was, and how the story of god(s) developed in cultures over time.

Now, this is strictly opinion not backed up with any sort of statistics, I believe most theists have their own personal definition of god, and it's something they use to complete their world view. There's a relatively small (but vocal) number of people that actually take every word of their holy book literally.

So, my next step was to determine whether belief in a personal god was necessary for a logically consistent world view. I found (and again, this is opinion) that it's not.

So, while I could continue to call myself an agnostic, in that I don't purport to know all the answers, I'm basically an atheist. Because there is no difference between the two.
 
I call myself an atheist when speaking with knowledgeable people, but if I'm talking with deeply religious people (like a lot of my family) I call myself an agnostic, simply because I don't want to have to try to teach them what an atheist is. They aren't going to believe it anyway.
 
Im an atheist, and thats the way I expect I will stay.

Remember, we are all born as atheists, its the way nature intended
 
Start out as an agnostic about the existence of Superman. Search everything available, read books, see movies, talk to people, visit fan clubs, do all the things you need to do to form an opinion as to whether or not Superman really exists or is the creation of someone's mind.

How long will you search before coming to a conclusion? Will you be open minded when the next issue of Superman comics comes out? Will you search the latest tv show to see if it gives you more insight into the existence of Superman? Sooner or later you must come to the conclusion that a rational person would have...there is no real Superman.

Why is the search for God so much different than the search for Superman? Perhaps it is the same for agnostics as it is for believers... a wish for it to be true. The believer wishes it so strongly they are willing to put aside any argument against god. The agnostic is appreciative of the arguments against god but still deep inside wishes it to be true. Dispite all evidence to the contrary, dispite no evidence to support it, the agnostic still refuses to admit there is no god.

Is it fear? Peer pressure? Hedging a bet? One thing it is not is logical.
 
Silicon said:
Which word do you describe yourself as?
Click to expand...

Having just come out of Christianity this year, I am still trying to figure out what I am. I feel like I have been freed from some awful prison.....anyway..........I am sort of in an agnostic/unitarian/secular humanism frame of mind. I might be on my way to Atheism...but then again, I might not...I just don't know for now.
 
I would say I am an atheist. While it is true that I can not say there is no god with 100% certainty, I also cannot say that Elvis is dead with 100% certainty or that ancient astronauts didn't build the pyramids with 100% certainty. However, it doesn't mean I think those things are even remotely likely either. So by the same logic that I say that I do think that Elvis is dead and that aliens did not build the pyramids, I feel safe saying that there is no God and thus I can call myself an atheist.
 
From what I have learned from this forum, the correct term is probably "God-Hating Evil A-Theist".

:wink:
 
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