"Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable." (source Wikipedia)
See the word unknowable in there? That means knowing for absolute certain that the existence is unknowable. That is principle unknowability. If we are talking about that kind of agnosticism, maybe not in your dictionary but Wikipedia is not the only source for it, it means a claim of absoluteness: to know absolute that god's existence cannot be known. So agnosticism in this form certainly is a strong absolute truth claim. Do you acknowledge this?
And since we cannot know what kind of agnosticism is under the hood when we check the label we should be careful to attribute meaning in our precious dictionary as a substitute for intended meaning.
Atheists all over the planet have beaten each other for decades now with meaningless discussions on this topic, replacing strong and weak athieism with gnostic and agnostic theism and back again. Going back interpreting Huxley who coined the term, and forth to meaning that was added later. That is pointless. I do not say that I know anything for certain, as all knowledge is tentative, and so I do not know absolutely certain that the christian god does not exist, but I do know it as certain as I know that fairies don't exist. There is no agreement on these terms.
So the next time you take the agnostic label, please be aware that you might be claiming something absolute.
See the word unknowable in there? That means knowing for absolute certain that the existence is unknowable. That is principle unknowability. If we are talking about that kind of agnosticism, maybe not in your dictionary but Wikipedia is not the only source for it, it means a claim of absoluteness: to know absolute that god's existence cannot be known. So agnosticism in this form certainly is a strong absolute truth claim. Do you acknowledge this?
And since we cannot know what kind of agnosticism is under the hood when we check the label we should be careful to attribute meaning in our precious dictionary as a substitute for intended meaning.
Atheists all over the planet have beaten each other for decades now with meaningless discussions on this topic, replacing strong and weak athieism with gnostic and agnostic theism and back again. Going back interpreting Huxley who coined the term, and forth to meaning that was added later. That is pointless. I do not say that I know anything for certain, as all knowledge is tentative, and so I do not know absolutely certain that the christian god does not exist, but I do know it as certain as I know that fairies don't exist. There is no agreement on these terms.
So the next time you take the agnostic label, please be aware that you might be claiming something absolute.
"I'm like a rabbit suddenly trapped, in the blinding headlights of vacuous crap" - Tim Minchin in "Storm"
Christianity is perfect bullshit, christians are not - Purple Rabbit, honouring CS Lewis
Faith is illogical - fr0d0
Christianity is perfect bullshit, christians are not - Purple Rabbit, honouring CS Lewis
Faith is illogical - fr0d0
