Agnostics

[Mister Agenda]

To be fair, we do usually have an idea of what is meant by 'God'. It's fair to go with the 'usual definition' unless they say otherwise. If they mean God as 'whatever began this iteration of the universe, even if it was a quantum vacuum fluctuation' rather than God as 'supernatural person who created the universe', they should say so because they are using a nonstandard definition. That said, the definition of 'supernatural' is problematic in itself. The real differences I run into when other people use the word 'God' isn't the basic definition, it's all the baggage they tack on in addition, which sometimes seems to be different for every believer.

I asked a perfectly reasonable question of agnostics - that they tell me whether they believe in the existence of something which they would call God themselves. I think that's a pretty good question, leaving no ambiguity, to determine whether one is a theist or an atheist.

There simply isn't a state between the two. You either believe in a god or you don't. If you don't, you're an atheist. Now you can dislike a word, but that doesn't make it wrong as a description of who you are.

I generally agree, one is either an agnostic theist or agnostic atheist...but the term 'agnostic' is popularly viewed as a halfway position between belief and lack of belief, and maybe there should be a term for someone who truly has no opinion either way or is undecided or vacillates. It doesn't pick my pocket or break my leg if someone calls themselves an agnostic. Maybe a little conversation will reveal that they are an agnostic atheist or agnostic theist; but it might reveal they are an 'agnostic agnostic': so on the edge of belief that it's reasonable for them to claim that they neither believe nor lack belief. It IS a binary condition, but it's possible to 'flicker' so much between belief and nonbelief that just plain agnostic is a useful word. Like a switch in the middle position will be 'off' or 'on', but so close to being 'either' that it's okay to say it's in the middle. But I'm a splitter, not a lumper, on this topic.