belief

[pocaracas]

So.... what is an agnostic christian?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_theism
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...239AASQNv2
http://www.amazon.com/The-Christian-Agno...0687069807

the same thing, oxymoronic

"I know, but can't prove it so I don't know"

the maturity level is somewhat humiliating and hard to accept though...

ok, for millionth time, since you joined this forum...

Gnosis means knowledge
agnostic is someone who is aware that he/she doesn't know something.
gnostic is someone who is aware that he/she does know something.

Notice that this knowledge does not necessarily concern gods.

e.g.: I'm agnostic about the weather for tomorrow in Sidney, Australia.

Theism is about belief in god.
atheist is someone who doesn't believe that gods exist OR believes that no gods exist.
theist is someone who believes that gods exist.
A sub-class of theists are deists who believe there is a god, but it's none of the ones that have/had religions built around them. (correct me if I'm wrong on this one, everyone).

You can use both these classifiers to describe a person both on his/her belief and degree of knowledge about god.
- Some christians claim to have a relationship with god, claim to somehow interact with it.... these would be gnostic theists.
- Some christians never have such relationship, and yet they remain believers... they are agnostic theists.
- Most atheists, never claim to know that god doesn't exist. Actually, they say what you keep shouting: I don't know. However, they attribute a likelihood for a god to exist which is well below 50%, and hence do not believe in such. These are the agnostic atheists (where I think you fit)
- Then you have some people who claim to know for sure that gods don't exist. These people mostly draw the inspiration for this point of view from the inference that all gods that have ever been worship were made up by people. They then arrive at the conclusion that people made up the very concept of "god". Hence, it just does not exist as a real entity, like Harry Potter or Sauron. These are the gnostic atheists.

I'm sure it is possible to categorize people in more degrees, like Dawkins scale:

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In the end, I guess what I'm trying to say is that each individual is not a black or white entity like you suggest.... there are many many shades of gray.