Agnostic - who is this and what does he believe in?

Agnostic - who is this in the modern world? Questions of faith in God remain largely unrequited for a person going his own way, different from others. Without relying on any of the existing religions, such people are ready to believe in the existence of the Creator, if this is proved.

Who is an agnostic?

Agnostic is a person who does not deny the existence of God, but also recognizes that he may simply not be. The percentage of agnostics is increasing day by day. For them, there are no authoritative sources in various religions, all the scriptures for the agnostic are literary monuments only. All agnostics strive for truth and understand that the world order is much more complicated than seen at first glance, but in the absence of evidence, knowledge for the agnostic becomes impossible, and the inquiring mind all questions.

For the first time the term "agnosticism" was introduced into the science of TG. Huxley is a follower of the Darwinian evolutionary theory to indicate his views on religious beliefs. Richard Dawkins in his work "God as an illusion" distinguishes several types of agnostics:

1. Agnostic in fact. Belief in God is slightly higher than disbelief: not entirely convinced, but inclined to believe that the Creator still exists.
2. Unbiased agnostic. Faith and unbelief exactly in half.
3. Agnostic inclined to atheism. Unbelief is little more than faith, a number of doubts.
4. The agnostic is essentially more atheist. The probability of the existence of a god is absolutely small, but it is not excluded.

What do agnostics believe in?

Can an agnostic believe in God, people who gradually move away from religion ask this question, but they continue to believe in their own way. A typical characteristic of an agnostic helps to understand these issues:

• refrains from judgments: there is a God or he is not, that is, can neither refute nor prove the existence or absence of the Creator;
• believes that a person must act on his own;
• even if God exists, then to man he does not have any business;
• the concept of good and evil is relative, there is undesirable behavior;
• man's conscience is the measure of his actions;
• most agnostics admire the person and life of Jesus Christ, but they see him as an ordinary person, albeit endowed with superhuman qualities;
• doubt the existence of the soul and immortality;
• the meaning of life for the agnostic is life itself with its joys and sorrows and the goals that the person sets himself;
• Consider evidence of the existence of God or his absence a matter of time, while there are few and all questionable.

Agnosticism in philosophy

The German philosopher of modern times I. Kant studied the phenomenon of agnosticism and brought about a harmonious and consistent theory of this direction. According to Kant, agnosticism in philosophy is an impossible cognition of reality or reality by a subject, because:

1. Human abilities of cognition are limited by its natural essence.
2. The world is unknowable in itself, a person can know only a narrow external area of ​​phenomena, objects, while the inner remains "terra incognita".
3. Cognition is the process by which the matter studies itself with its own reflective power.

D. Berkeley and D. Hume are other prominent philosophers, also contributed to this direction of philosophy. Briefly agnostic who this and the general features of agnosticism from the works of philosophers are presented in the following theses:

1. Agnosticism is closely connected with the philosophical current - skepticism.
2. The agnostic rejects objective knowledge and the opportunity to know the world to the fullest.
3. God-knowledge is impossible, obtaining reliable information about God is difficult.

Gnostic and agnostic - difference

Atheism and agnosticism have united in such a direction as atheistic agnosticism, in which belief in any deity is denied, but the existence of the divine manifestation as a whole is not denied. In addition to agnostics, there is also the opposite "camp" - the Gnostics (some philosophers consider them truly believers). What is the difference between the Gnostics and agnostics:

1. Agnostics - question the knowledge of God, the Gnostics simply know that it is.
2. Followers of Gnosticism believe in the truth of human knowledge through the knowledge of reality by scientific and mystical experience, agnostics believe that the world is unknowable.

Agnostic and atheist - what's the difference?

Many people confuse these two concepts with an agnostic and an atheist. Agnosticism in religion by many clerics is perceived as atheism, but this is not true. It can not be said that an atheist and an agnostic are cardinally different representatives, and in some cases there are agnostics among atheists and vice versa, and yet there is a difference between them:

1. The atheist does not doubt that there is no god, unlike the agnostic.
2. Atheists are materialists in their pure form, among the agnostics there are many idealists.

How to become an agnostic?

Most people depart from traditional existing religions. In order to become an agnostic, people should have doubts and questions. Often agnostics are former theists (believers) who have doubted the existence of God. Sometimes it happens after tragic cases or a person expecting divine support does not receive it.