Agnostics

[bennyboy]

OK, that's totally fine.

I'm not understanding what the contradiction is meant to be thought, personally. If you believe it does exist and also doesn't exist, then that's a contradiction for sure. But if you just consider both possibilities as open, then that's the default position for any claim. There is no requirement to hold the position that a claim is either true or false. Undecided is also valid.

As I said in my vid, I'm undecided regarding a generic intelligent creator of some sort.

I totally agree with this, but I'd like to elaborate a little for others. In short, let me say that if I understand WHY I'm undecided about something, I get to claim agnosticism, even about belief questions.

Maybe I shouldn't say that "I" believe it does exist and also doesn't exist.  I'm a single agent, and should have a single answer-- or be unable to answer.  My brain, on the other hand, is not a single agent, and is definitely able to simultaneously imagine and consider multiple states simultaneously.  In order for me to render a single answer to a yes/no question, one of those states will have to sort of "win out" in my brain.

Let's say someone asked if my newborn infant would be a boy, but I hadn't asked the doctor.  I wouldn't say I lacked that belief.  Nor would I say I believed it to be true.  I'd say, "I don't know."  In this case, when multiple answers are still being processed by the brain, I'd say there's a strong link between belief and knowledge-- since some beliefs must necessarily be conditional on knowledge: I believe if X, then God, if Not X, then Not God.  But we don't necessarily have access to information X, and are left in a state of permanent limbo. This limbo or lack of capacity to resolve an issue in the mind certainly could be called "undecided," but in cases where I can see I'll be unable to collect "information X," and will therefore never be able to render a decision, I'm still happier with the single term, "agnostic."

For example, I sometimes belief that the Universe may be panpsychic-- specifically that every interchange of energy represents information, and that the Universe is therefore like a super-massive, conscious brain. This mind, if panpsychism is true, I think could very sensibly be called "God." However, I do not believe that I will ever be able to determine what physical elements do/don't have connections to qualia, so I'm agnostic about whether God (by that definition) exists.