Quote:Agnosticism is atheism lite, like intelligent design is creationism lite
A common misconception. The two terms are not directly related. 'atheism' refers to a lack of BELIEF (a=not theos=god) 'Agnostic' refers to a lack of KNOWLEDGE. ( a= no gnosis =knowledge)
The atheist simply asserts lack of belief.The agnostic asserts lack of knowledge. He may be claiming god exists but is unknowable, or that he simply does not know.
However,I think it's also common for people who are atheists to call themselves 'agnostic'. That may be a matter of denial,misunderstanding of terms,or simply because they've never thought about the issue.
I called myself an agnostic for many years .I simply did not understand the meaning of the word 'atheism",believing it entailed a positive claim of "there is no god ". I could not and cannot make such an assertion. I am only able to assert "I do not believe due to lack of evidence" that makes me an agnostic atheist..
I think the claim that agnosticism is atheism lite or intellectually dishonest is no doubt true for many people. However, I think those claims are facile and arrogant as general principles.
