Agnosticism

[artyboy]

Right just a short thread from me about agnosticism and how I see the term reflects on me.

To me agnosticism is the believe that there isnt any one god or gods etc but maybe there is just something more to this life than our existence here and now.

I think religions have there place for some people and they have done a lot of good but also bad people use religions for power and other evil crap.

Well that's my opinion on the meaning of Agnosticism.

[TigerLover]

Atheism is boring to me lol

Im agnostic which most people are these days even though most dont have a clue what that word means lol!

Well sure basic Athiesm is boring, it's just the absence of a thing. But the truly great thing about Atheism is that you can upgrade to various optional extras.

The humaninism package which is super warm and cuddly.

The rationalist package which is thrilling and makes science more fun.

You can embrace the stardust philosophy which is just plain awesome.

You can accept truth as the number ome virtue. Which lets you feel smug in your "morally superiority".

You can be a determist which will blow your fricking mind.... not recommended by me despite the fact that I am one.

And if you miss the rituals of religion you can enter the church of the flying spaghetti monster, worship the invisible pink unicorn or become a fake pagan. Feel like a badass by invoking the wrath of Odin before a football match.

.....Or you can become one of those crazy cultish people who ramble on about how the singularity is due next Tuesday.

ALL of which is totally exclusive to Atheism.

[TigerLover]

I happen to be about halfway through "in god we doubt" by John Humphrys right now. Great book on agnosticism.

[Chase]

For me I just call myself an agnostic atheist when theists tell me you can't be 100% positive there's no god unless you look under every rock in the entire freaking universe. Why they do this, I don't know, because there could just as well be other gods that'd contradict their monotheism.
I'd say I'm 100% certain all of the major religions such as Christianity and Islam are false. If I die and stand before some being that calls itself Yahweh/Jesus /whatever it won't prove Christianity to me because I am certain the book of Genesis is proven false, you don't have to look everywhere in the universe to determine that, you just have to look on earth; so it'd mean God is a liar.
If there is some sort of God, I'd guess it's a deist god.

[Rhyolite]

I call myself spiritual atheist. I don't believe in a superior being or deity, I am open to the idea of some form of "system" owing to many experiences that defy explanation other than life after death or at least some form of existence beyond life.
Maybe that encompasses agnosticism I don't know.

[deephiance]

Agnostic to me means open minded and sits neatly between the belief's of theists and atheists.

As ridiculous as some theists beliefs are, there is a sort of romanticism surrounding the beliefs that make you hope that the Atheists are also far fetched.

[RomanticMan]

I think agnosticism is being unbiased about God's existence.

Because I have many reasons to believe and disbelieve in God. Those may come to some just stupid ideas but there is not justice in the world and Africans die of hunger every day.

And I wonder how the first living creature has come into existence. Because this is just turning from nothing to an existance.

I would say this is the mainstream reason of my being agnostic. But even if there is a God or gods, I dont believe Islam, Christianity or Judaism has something to do with God or gods.

[Confuzzled4]

Agnosticism is the belief that there is no point in asking the question if there is a God/gods who has affairs with life because there is no way to know. Sort of like when you hear the phrase "will neither confirm nor deny". Doesn't mean you can't be a deist and believe in a higher power of some kind. This is really semantics though, just attaching a particular name to the belief system.

[Marcus]

I think agnosticism is pointless: you either believe or think.
The idea that there's life after death, an all-loving god etc is beautiful, but sadly (or maybe luckily) there's nothing to prove that it's even remotely possible. Actually, the laws of physics, which have proven to work pretty well in reality, kinda contradict those things. If we keep an open mind on such an absurd idea with zero evidence to back it up, then we should keep an open mind on equally absurd ideas like:
> we're all characters from an alien tv show;
> the world we know is actually the dream of a fool, we will all disappear once he wakes up.
Are those ideas dumb? Yep. But that goes for god too. The fact it's more romantic, the fact it makes for a more interesting story, doesn't make it any more realistic.

[InbetweenDreams]

@artyboy Agnosticism is the Dr. Pepper of beliefs. What flavor is it? Nobody knows.

I feel like it is someone who is "wandering" spiritually. I think a lot of people have a bad experience with the religion their family believes in. I also think a lot of us have had bad experiences whether it is a Christian faith, a Muslim or Islamic faith. Sure churches in out area have and currently do good things, but they also do bad things. A lot of terrible things have been done in the name of God.

That's what has drawn me towards Paganism. There is not rule defining what you should or should not believe. Some Pagans don't believe in any sort of diety, while many other do, some one some many. So, you're free to believe what works for you. There are some principles with Paganism and it is as much of an umbrella term as is Christian, as Christian can be of one of many denmominations.

Not trying to sell anyone on Paganism, but it is to me, a bit of fresh air knowing there are much less restrictive religions as in you must believe this, you must obey that, you must give me %10 of your income because God said so...

The way I see it, is I try to understand how things work, the way things in the universe work. I try to understand the vastness of it. After all we're a bunch of tiny people on a tiny rock, going around tiny star in one of billions of stars in one of billions of galaxies in a universe in which we cannot fully observe because the light simply hasn't got here any perhaps never will since the universe is believed to be expanding at an increasing rate.

Any rate, I could go on about the things that just boggles the mind thinking about...