2007-02-08 23:57:46 · 26 answers · asked by apple 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The atheist says "There is no God."
The agnostic says "I don't know."
2007-02-09 00:00:05 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
An atheist is someone who does not have a belief in a personal god. Newborns, Buddhists, humanists, and freethinkers are all atheist. Most atheists do not claim that they can prove god does not exist any more than they can "prove" that Santa Clause does not exist, they just don't believe it to be true.
Gnostic refers to our knowledge and theism refers to god. There is a common misconception that agnosticism is an admission of the lack of knowledge of god and atheism is a dogmatic approach that asserts that there is no god. Agnostic literally means no knowledge, atheism is defined as lack of believe in a god. A person can be agnostic about anything and everyone is agnostic about the existence of god. Atheism describes the belief itself, given the evidence an atheist does not believe that a god exists, and can still state logically that they are agnostic on the subject. To better illustrate this point I always refer to the invisible elf on my head. No one can prove that the elf does not exist, but the possibility is there, so the person that heard this claim would have no knowledge either way and thus would be agnostic on the subject, however one could still make a positive claim based on lack of sufficient evidence that there was not an elf on my head. Gnostic describes knowledge and atheism describes belief.
2007-02-09 08:25:27 · answer #2 · answered by greecevaca 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
An atheist is someone who does not believe in gods, typically because there is no evidence for the existence of gods.
Agnosticism is a much more difficult position - it seems to be the stance that the question of whether or not there is a god is somehow unique, so the normal rules of evidence don't apply. As a result, despite the lack of evidence, the agnostic says "I don't know whether or not there is a god".
In my personal opinion, the agnostic is simply someone who doesn't believe, but because of cultural pressures, is not able to apply his/her reasoning to the gods question. Specifically, the agnostic seems to share many believers' unawareness of the burden of evidence, and instead (again, like many believers) to insist on proof before being willing to say that they "know". In short, it's an absolutist position, where atheism is the open-minded position on the question.
2007-02-09 08:10:13 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The atheist doesn't believe in God. And the agnostic considers that the truth value of certain claims, such as theological claims regarding metaphysics, the existence of God, god(s), or deities, etc, is unknown or, probably, inherently unknowable. This therm was proposed by Huxley, to describe his philosophical doctrine.
Thus, an atheist is not necessarily an agnostic.
2007-02-09 08:03:21 · answer #4 · answered by Princeps 1984 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
An atheist is a person denies or who does not believe God exists, or that there is a supreme being.
An agnostic is a person someone who is skeptical about the existence of God. They believe it is impossible to know whether there really is a God.
2007-02-09 08:07:13 · answer #5 · answered by Marmylade 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Simply
an atheist doesn't believe in the existance of a god or gods
an agnostic believes we don't or can't know if a god or gods exist
2007-02-09 08:04:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
From the earliest times many different varieties of atheist philosophy have been preached in different countries and languages.
Some of the philosophies of Atheism
"There is no God. There is no world. There are no living entities. All these are only ideas. Ideas are eternal and of great variety. These ideas will never cease to exist. Ideas are the absolute reality."
Some philosophers say that matter is everything, matter is self-manifest, matter is eternal, and any conception of God is a senseless lie.
They say no one has ever proved God's existence, God is created by men, and talk of a spiritual world is a lie imagined by rascals.
One should not accept the existence of anything beyond matter. Belief in God is for children. Adults know God is a myth. Discriminating between good and evil, one should act righteously. One should try to do good to all human beings. That is the philosophy of unselfish material pleasure.
1. Materialism, or the worship of material nature,
2. Idealism,
and 3. Scepticism are three of the oldest kinds of atheism.
All other kinds of atheism are included within them. It is a mistake to think that the various modern forms of atheism were all only recently invented. With different names and in somewhat different forms, these same kinds of atheism existed also in ancient times. Many different kinds of atheism were thus preached in our country. Among them nyaya, vaisesika, and karma-mimamsa were openly atheistic. Patanjali's yoga philosophy and the philosophy of Vedanta Monism (advaita) were covered atheism.
Agnostism is similar to Scepticism which says,
"I do not have complete knowledge of God, and there is no way I will ever have complete knowledge of God. Therefore I will never understand God they really are."
Personal comment. Though they deny the existence of God having lost faith, they do so with the mind & intellect given by their parents, grand parents and ancestors and stretching ultimately to God only. Without the power of God they cannot deny God.
If they receive the favor and mercy of God or his devotees they also again become believers and faithful.
2007-02-09 08:33:19 · answer #7 · answered by Gaura 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
An atheist absolutely does not belive there is a God. An agnostic is skeptical about God, but leaves the door of possibility open.
2007-02-09 08:00:31 · answer #8 · answered by WC 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
An atheist simply does not believe in the possibility of god whereas an agnostic is open to the possibility of a god - if it can be proven.
2007-02-09 08:02:52 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
An atheist does not believe in "God",but understands there is a higher power in the universe.
An agnostic believes there is no higher power in the universe and the world as we know it just happened by random chance, more scientific.
2007-02-09 08:05:28 · answer #10 · answered by TacomaMan 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Atheist doesn't believe in God at all and I think that Agnostics don't care or the other.
2007-02-09 08:00:08 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋