what is the difference between being an atheist or agnostic?

Question

they seem the same to me but with agnostic sounding less harsh.

Answer 1

Here's the full answers:

Athiest - Believes that there is, without a doubt, no god.

There are two typed of agnosticism:

Weak - Weak Agnostics take no stance on religion. They basically do not know. They think there may be a god. There might not be a god. The god might be completely different than every other religion.

Strong - Strong Agnostics think there may be a god, but do not know its true nature. Also, they believe that humans do not have the mind capacity to even fathom or understand what the true nature of god is. This is what I am. Think about it... if you have a dog... he's excited to see you when you get home from work. But, does he understand where you were all day? Does he understand that you were performing a menial task to make X amount of dollars per hour. And that every week you get a piece of paper good for that amount of money, that you can bring to a bank and deposit into an electronic account? And that you can bring a card with a magnetic strip to a pet store, and purchase a can of dog food with that money you made from performing that menial task for eight hours via your checking account via that plastic card with that magnetic strip? No, not only does a dog not understand that, IT COULD NEVER understand that. It's brain is not powerful enough. Who are we to say that we can understand the creation of the Earth, or Universe even! That's pretty arrogant...

Answer 2

There is a lot of common ground.

I am an atheist. I look at the fact there is no evidence that there is a god and take it that the only reasonable conclusion is there isn't one.

An agnostic looks at the Universe and says that by its nature it is impossible to tell rather there is or not.

I personally don't disagree with this position and it is really just a philosophical difference. I don't think it reasonable to believe in things that have no hard evidence. That covers way too much ground.

Answer 3

An atheist is the opposit of a theist, someone who has an active belief that no dieites exist.

Agnosticism defines both theism and atheism. An agnostic believes that the existence of any deity cannot be proven nor disproven, but can still believe or not believe in any given deity.

For instance, I am an agnostic theist. I believe in the existence of many deities, but I do not believe that anyone, not even I, can prove that they exist. Nor do I believe that anyone can disprove their existence.

Answer 4

An atheist do not believe in the existence of higher beings, an agnostic believes in the possibility of higher being (God) but only if proven by scientific method.

Answer 5

An atheist believes that there is no such thing as god. An agnostic believes that it is impossible to know whether or not there is such a thing as god. As a practical matter, the difference is unimportant; in either case, one can conclude that belief in god, even if correct, is useless as it cannot have any real-world consequences.

Answer 6

An agnostic believes it is impossible, either way to either prove or disprove the existence of God. That it is impossible to know.

An athiest simply does not believe in God(s).

A Deist believes in a Creator, but that he left us on our own, and is completely unconcerned with the day to day affairs of humans.

Answer 7

Atheists believe there is no God, Agnostics believe they cannot know for sure.

Answer 8

Agnostic isn't sure if there's god or not but knows organized religion isn't right. Atheist know god doesn't exist and stays away from religion.

Answer 9

An agnostic does not believe in god unless you show them proof. Basically they're on the fence. They'll believe it once they see it. An athiest doesn't believe in any kind of god, heaven, hell, or afterlife.

Answer 10

An agnostic is someone who believes there may be a god, but he/she doesn't know who that god is. An Athiest is someone who denies that there is a god.