Quite often, when I discuss faith and spirituality with religious people here or elsewhere, they assume I am an Atheist. When I inform them I am, in fact, an Agnostic, they either ignore me and continue calling me an Atheist, or go "Well aren't they the same thing?"
Why is this, do you think? Just curious.
2007-03-17 12:21:26 · 49 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
What difference does it make? Summed up, both equal the same to us! Either you believe in God, or you don't. Why do you need a brand name?
2007-03-17 12:24:45 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 14⤋
Hope this is not offensive, as I like the question (and the asker), and tried to be as clear and unattacking as possible.
I used to call myself an Agnostic, and wondered about just what you are asking here. Then I realized that I am not "agnostic" about unicorns; I see no evidence for them, so I do not believe in them. The only difference with a deity is that there cannot be evidence that would necessarily imply one (Hume). I'm still struggling with whether this makes god(s) fall into a non-empirical domain, but I say I am an Atheist. To say Agnostic here would be inconsistent with my scientific claim about unicorns and the like. Perhaps some others realize this as well, and assume (to my mind, correctly) that you are in fact an Atheist. The term "Agnostic" just seems non-committal, given that atheism is (generally) a scientific stance anyway.
2007-03-17 12:38:36 · answer #2 · answered by neil s 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because most religious people simply lump anyone who isn't of their religious persuasion into the same pile.
Atheist and Agnostics unfortunately end up in the same pile simply out of shear ignorance of what the terms mean. There are many religious people who claim that Atheism for example, is a religion. And Christians especially tend to believe that if you don't believe in the Christian god then you don't believe in the only God that could possible exist, as if Christianity has the market cornered on "God" or something.
Basically ignorance is responsible for the confusion and most religious people don't seem to want to understand when corrected.
2007-03-17 12:37:43 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well, according to Richard Dawkins (see: The God Delusion). There are no 100% atheists or theists. Most people are somewhat agnostic. He ranged it from like 1 to 7 on the scale with 1 being 100% theist, 7 being 100% atheist. The thing is, that theists think they are 100% and they label anybody less than that as an atheist. I consider myself an agnostic-atheist (meaning I'm agnostic in the sense that I know there is no way we can know for sure, on way or the other, but I lean more towards atheism). There are agnostic-theists as well (they lean to God existing). Some people just prefer to lump all of these in with the atheist category. Really, it's just ignorance (not in a mean way) of the different groups that people fall into with re: to religion.
2007-03-17 12:26:11 · answer #4 · answered by eastchic2001 5 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Hello again young lady,
I do not really know why so many are ignorang of the difference in them. I suppose that they bel;ieve that there are only two options... Those who believe and those who do not. I have known that difference for quite some time. I am quite a bit different than that. I believe that a number of people who claim to be Christians are actually NOT. They only play as Christians on here and at church on Sunday. I hope that at some point you are able to make a decision to become a Christian. I have heard so many great answers from you over the last months that I am impressed with your knowledge and I hope that at some point in time you make that leap of faith. Have a great evening.
Eds
2007-03-17 12:36:32 · answer #5 · answered by Eds 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Judging by the answers a lot of Atheists and Agnostics don't know the difference.Here it is.An Atheist actively disbelieves in god and is willing to argue the point. An Agnostic doesn't see any evidence of God and isn't looking for any.In other words we don't believe or disbelieve.We're not neutral we just don't bother.We will give our opinion when asked but it's not how we define ourselves.
2007-03-17 12:49:41 · answer #6 · answered by Dr. NG 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
People don't understand that agnosticism is a philosophy and considers questions of faith only as they apply to questions of knowledge.
It's simply ignorance. Atheists and theists claim knowledge of some sort of theological construct. Many of them assume agnosticism is a theology. Sometimes, they have such a strong belief in their own knowledge of the existence of a concept god or lack thereof that they cannot, in their minds, allow for anyone who admits they do not know. More often, I think, people confuse beliefs with knowledge and agnosticism as a theological concept. They also might not be able to separate the concepts of religious knowledge and religious beliefs.
They just don't understand it, basically, and try to force it into things they can understand.
2007-03-17 22:07:31 · answer #7 · answered by ophelliaz 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There seems to be a general freedom in modern culture wherein people use words without really considering what they mean. I suspect many who label themselves atheist, if the point was pressed, would realize thay are actually agnostic. I think it is also true that many consider themselves Christian, yet this is more a social label than a settled personal belief.
2007-03-17 12:33:30 · answer #8 · answered by wefmeister 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If GOD came to a house and there was an Atheist there and an Agnostic there and GOD walked on water, raised the dead and turned water into Wine the AGNOSTIC would be impressed and the Atheist wouldn't.
2007-03-17 12:59:22 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ignorance. Most people like to group agnostics with atheists, when there is in fact a difference. Atheists believe there is no God period end of story, Agnostics believe God can neither be proven nor disproven, BUT they believe there might be a possiblity of a God or Goddess, but they are not 100% sure.
2007-03-17 12:28:46 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
The funny thing I've noticed is that religious people often refuse to believe that Anyone is really an atheist. They prefer to believe that people who say they are atheist, and the religious person knows that there is a difference, are really agnostic or they are just "mad at god" for one thing or another.
That's been my observation while here in R&S.
Peace
2007-03-17 12:27:46 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋