what is the difference in an atheist and an agnostic?

Answer 1

An atheist professes that they do not believe in any God
An agnostic professes that they are unsure and sometimes don't care

Answer 2

An atheist doesn't believe in anything spiritually. Agnostic believe there is something out there, just doesn't know exactly what it is. And for the comment previously, Theist have nothing to do with Atheist. Theist believe in a God.

Answer 3

Colloquially, an Atheist lacks belief in a divine being(s); an Agnostic has not made up his/er mind.

Philosophically, an Atheist is still a person who simply lacks belief, but an Agnostic is one who believes that the existence of god is, in principal, unprovable. Because of this, you have Atheistic Agnostics (those who believed god unprovable, and lacked belief) and Theistic Agnostics (those who believed god was unprovable, and had belief).

Belief is either there or it is not; someone who hasn't decided clearly lacks belief. Because of this, I find the philosophical definition to be far superior to the typical usage.

Answer 4

Atheists know that there is no god,

Agnostics are often self loathing Atheists who for social reasons do not like to admit to the absence of any god(s) and wish to appear non commital as to their verson of their purported belief.

Some Agnostics like the Idea of divinity but all of the current religions simply do not appear as credible and they may believe that Humans are simply not intelligent enough to understand God(s) and its/their purpose or role.

Answer 5

Atheist lacks belief in deities. Agnostics assert that we cannot attain or possess certain knowledge as to the existence or nonexistence of deities.

An agnostic can either refuse to take a position either way (and thereby make themselves weak atheists), or they can choose to believe or not believe while still admitting that they can't know absolutely one way or the other. Some consider definite knowledge perpetually beyond only their own grasp, and others consider it universally unattainable.

There are all different kinds of atheists. There are weak, strong, implicit and explicit atheists as well as theological noncognitivists and "apatheists". Weak atheists lack belief in gods while strong atheists profess a positive belief that gods do not exist. Implicit atheists are weak by default because implicit atheism is a lack of belief due to never being exposed to the concept of a deity or devoid the capacity to conceive of such a concept. Explicit atheists are those who consciously reject the notion of gods.

Theological noncognitivists (or "ignostics") consider the term God to be literally meaningless. A.J. Ayer stated "To say that God exists is to make a metaphysical utterance which cannot be either true or false." The claim does not "possess any literal significance" because the word "God" is nonsensical and worthless. Noncognitivists consider the question "does God exist" to be intellectually equivalent to "are Thursdays purple".

Apatheism is a disinterest in accepting or denying any claims that God, or any other supernatural being, exists or does not exist. In other words, apatheism considers the question of the existence of God as neither meaningful nor relevant to human affairs.

Answer 6

Sorry ZERO, but it is the agnostic (or weak atheists) who lacks belief. Strong atheists do believe. We believe there is no god.

Answer 7

Atheist denies there is God......agnostic just doesn't know one way or the other.

Answer 8

As an Agnostic deist I see a big difference. I think there is a God.

Answer 9

n atheist says there is no God, an agnostic, doesn't know and doesn't care.

Answer 10

An atheist does not believe in god.
An agnostic believes it is impossible to know if there is a god.