What is the right definition of agnostic?

[Red_Wind]

*Sorry if this is in the wrong section*
I've been reading some comments on social media where people claim to be neither theist nor atheist but agnostic, i was under the impression that a/theism is about belief and a/gnostic is about knowledge.

When i googles 'agnostic' the first thing that came up was this:

ag·nos·tic
aɡˈnästik/
noun
noun: agnostic; plural noun: agnostics

1. 1.
   a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.
   synonyms:
   skeptic, doubter, doubting Thomas, cynic; More
   unbeliever, nonbeliever, rationalist;
   rarenullifidian
   "as far as I know, Stevens was an atheist, or at least an agnostic"
   
   
   antonyms:
   believer, theist
   

adjective
adjective: agnostic
1.
of or relating to agnostics or agnosticism.
synonyms:
skeptic, doubter, doubting Thomas, cynic; More

So what is the right definition? And if the google definition is wrong, why haven't they fixed it? It's basically spreading false information and a lot of people rely on Google.

[ignoramus]

Oh shit, not this again...

Do a search matey.

After objective morality, queefing and poo, this topic was discussed the most.
(Also RobValue also has a breakdown in his sig links)

[Red_Wind]

Oh shit, not this again...

Do a search matey.

After objective morality and poo, this was discussed the most.

Try reading the thread next time.

[Alex K]

Personally, I just about had it with these labels - most definitions given are useless and too crude, and as long as it isn't clear what is meant by God in the first place, they are a waste of air and electrons.

[robvalue]

*Sorry if this is in the wrong section*
I've been reading some comments on social media where people claim to be neither theist nor atheist but agnostic, i was under the impression that a/theism is about belief and a/gnostic is about knowledge.

When i googles 'agnostic' the first thing that came up was this:

ag·nos·tic
aɡˈnästik/
noun
noun: agnostic; plural noun: agnostics

1. 1.
   a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.
   synonyms:
   skeptic, doubter, doubting Thomas, cynic; More
   unbeliever, nonbeliever, rationalist;
   rarenullifidian
   "as far as I know, Stevens was an atheist, or at least an agnostic"
   
   
   antonyms:
   believer, theist
   

adjective
adjective: agnostic
1.
of or relating to agnostics or agnosticism.
synonyms:
skeptic, doubter, doubting Thomas, cynic; More

So what is the right definition? And if the google definition is wrong, why haven't they fixed it? It's basically spreading false information and a lot of people rely on Google.

I have underlined what is generally accepted to be the right definition. I don't know why it has the alternative, which is basically the most common misuse of the word.

I have written more about it in my website here. I've also done a video and an accompanying chart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d34BmGnrUEI

[pocaracas]

This old one...
This word exists due to historical reasons

Well... it all started with the word "atheism" or "atheist".
During roman times, an "atheist" was a person who didn't believe in the roman gods.... christians were labelled "atheists". You can already see that the concept of a god is... not well defined, but let's try to keep it within the realm of contemporary popular definition - the entity or entities responsible for creating and controlling the world around us, lowly humans.

At some point in history, along the second half of the second millennium, "atheist" became attached to people to claim the non-existence of any god - the believer in the non-existence of gods.
But philosophers just need to keep poking holes and this position became one of faith... one of belief... the very thing those atheists didn't want to be associated with.
Enter the more intellectually honest position, "I don't know and it doesn't look like it's knowable".... the agnostic.

Most agnostics then follow through with "hence, I also withdraw belief in the existence of any divine entity", thus becoming what we like to call "agnostic atheists", or as some would have it "weak atheists".

Some people realize the impossibility of knowing anything about the god of their society, but still can't escape their indoctrination into belief... enter the "agnostic theist".


Some people, mostly in the Americas, find that "atheist" retains that "believe that god does not exist" connotation and choose not to use that label on themselves. But they retain the "agnostic" label, as an equivalent of what I described as "agnostic atheist". It's a strategy to avoid a public shutdown at the mention of the word "atheist".

[robvalue]

I think the misunderstanding comes because someone who has no belief either way will typically say "I don't know". But this is technically an incorrect response, because you weren't asking what the person knows. They are really saying they "don't believe or disbelieve".

The only way that you could not know would be that you literally don't know what you actually believe. This would be a rare condition, where someone doesn't have direct access to their own opinions.

It's also further confused by people thinking "I don't believe in God" and "I believe there is no God" mean the same thing. They don't, as my website explains.

[Red_Wind]

Thanks, i will take a look at your video.

My beef is actually with google and how such a large company that most people turn to for information can spread false information.

[robvalue]

You're welcome

In the defense of dictionaries, their job is really to reflect word usage rather than to define it. It probably gets misused more than it gets used.

[pocaracas]

Oh.... your beef is with the dictionary?
LOL... never use the Merriam-Webster, then! That thing is biased.

But there's a decent online dictionary that I've found to be complete on most things:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/agnostic?s=t

noun
1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
Synonyms: disbeliever, nonbeliever, unbeliever; doubter, skeptic, secularist, empiricist; heathen, heretic, infidel, pagan.
2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.
3. a person who holds neither of two opposing positions on a topic:
Socrates was an agnostic on the subject of immortality.


adjective
4. of or relating to agnostics or their doctrines, attitudes, or beliefs.
5. asserting the uncertainty of all claims to knowledge.
6. holding neither of two opposing positions:
If you take an agnostic view of technology, then it becomes clear that your decisions to implement one solution or another should be driven by need.


Origin of agnostic
Greek
< Greek ágnōst (os), variant of ágnōtos not known, incapable of being known ( a- a-6+ gnōtós known, adj. derivative from base of gignṓskein to know) + -ic, after gnostic; said to have been coined by T.H. Huxley in 1869

At least one of those should describe what you want.



EDIT:
Also, for difficult matters, there's a better dictionary (well, it's actually an enciclopedia.... the "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy"):
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/