Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The doctrine that certainty about first principles or absolute truth is unattainable and that only perceptual phenomena are objects of exact knowledge.
- noun The belief that the existence or nonexistence of a deity or deities cannot be known with certainty.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The doctrines of the agnostics; the doctrine that the ultimate cause and the essential nature of tilings are unknowable, or at least unknown.
- noun Belief in the doctrines of the agnostics.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Theol.) That doctrine which, professing ignorance, neither asserts nor denies.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The view that absolute
truth or ultimatecertainty is unattainable, especially regardingknowledge not based onexperience or perceivablephenomena . - noun The view that the
existence ofGod or of alldeities isunknown ,unknowable ,unproven , orunprovable . - noun
Doubt ,uncertainty , orscepticism regarding the existence of a god or gods.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the disbelief in any claims of ultimate knowledge
- noun a religious orientation of doubt; a denial of ultimate knowledge of the existence of God
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Coined by T.H. Huxley, the term agnosticism means "no knowledge" and thus contends one is unable to know anything about God
Default Site Weblog 2010
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(I still think agnosticism is legitimate doctrine, although Dawkins railed against agnostics in the book).
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Packet-agnosticism is a bad idea (which is why different levels of packet-inspection exist at all.)
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But agnosticism is all about doubt and uncertainty and the courage to admit ignorance.
Michael Krasny: Just Say 'I Don't Know' Michael Krasny 2010
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But agnosticism is all about doubt and uncertainty and the courage to admit ignorance.
Michael Krasny: Just Say 'I Don't Know' Michael Krasny 2010
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(I still think agnosticism is legitimate doctrine, although Dawkins railed against agnostics in the book).
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But often agnosticism is really an expression of cant be bothered to think right now ...
Fuzzy Fidelity Newmania 2008
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[4] Strong agnosticism is a religious application of this position.
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The argument for government agnosticism is that, unlike government endorsement of any particular religious proposition, it is not in principle impossible for everyone to agree to it.
Balkinization 2007
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Not along ago, I happened once again upon that old assertion that agnosticism is the only rational belief because, "You can't prove a negative."
A Bland and Deadly Courtesy skzbrust 2006
oroboros commented on the word agnosticism
Here's an elegant and suasive essay: Agnosticism and Other Essays, by Edgar Fawcett.
July 11, 2008