Here's how I would phrase it. Atheism is a lack of a belief in a deity. Theism is the belief in a deity that is active in the world. Deism is the belief in an uncaused cause sort of god that left the universe to work like clockwork ( for the record most of the founding fathers were deists. Being a deist back then was like being an atheist today in a sense. ). Those are statements of BELIEF.
Agnostic is not a statement of belief, but an epistemological statement. That's a statement about what you KNOW or CAN know ( or at least think you can know ). One could believe that their knowledge is not 100% certain ( agnostic ) but still believe in God and be a theist. One can also be an atheist and an agnostic.
Richard Dawkins has a scale in the God Delusion about belief, with Gnostic theists ( not the old sect, I mean, as in knowing ) being number one and gnostic atheists at 7. Everything in between is technically some variety of agnostic.
Agnostic is not a statement of belief, but an epistemological statement. That's a statement about what you KNOW or CAN know ( or at least think you can know ). One could believe that their knowledge is not 100% certain ( agnostic ) but still believe in God and be a theist. One can also be an atheist and an agnostic.
Richard Dawkins has a scale in the God Delusion about belief, with Gnostic theists ( not the old sect, I mean, as in knowing ) being number one and gnostic atheists at 7. Everything in between is technically some variety of agnostic.
