Agnostic theism

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Agnostic theism is the philosophical view that encompasses both theism and agnosticism. An agnostic theist is one who views that the truth value of certain claims, in particular the existence of god(s) is unknown or inherently unknowable but chooses to believe in God(s) in spite of this. An agnostic theist can also be classified as someone who believes in a god yet does not understand how God or deities work. There are contrasting views of the term.

Agnostic Theism is the belief in god or but belief that it cannot be proven, Agnostic Theism Encompasses both Theism and Agnosticism, there are numerous beliefs that can be included in agnostic theism, including Fideism, but however not all Agnostic theists are Fideists. It is possible to be a Christian agnostic Islamic agnostic Zoroastrian agnostic or simply an agnostic non-religious person. However all these combinations are similar that to be Agnostic theistic one must encompass doubt in the existence or ability to prove god and the belief in God. In Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion, in the chapter the God Hypothesis brings the concept of "milestones" 1 being strong Theist no doubt god exists 4 agnostic believing in the equiprobable existence of God and 7 being a strong atheist with a strong belief in the non-existence of God. Agnostic Theists are not named but 3 on the scale accurately describe them. Dawkins classifies them as someone who would say I’m very uncertain in the existence of God but I’m declined to unbelief in him and inclined to belief in them. Perhaps although without a doubt this may be influenced by such maxims, as every house must have a builder or in the fideistic case it was written so it’s a matter of faith. In fact it is possible for men to go in and out of Agnostic theism in temporary times of doubt it can also be permanent or a step up on Dawkins scale before another step. This belief can have a wide swath of reasons for believing in such as the belief in a personal god or singular god and however doubt in all the other religions authenticity (in other words a belief and philosophy that is there are so many religions all but one or none must be correct. An agnostic theist may have a belief he admits to having several flaws in proving and thus persists in believing it out of personal philosophy. Agnostic theism can also exist in the belief of Voltaire’s god in deism or in any distant non-interacting god belief. Agnostic Theism could postulate wise include theists who are doubting their religious beliefs due to scientific criticism. Although Science can not disprove religion it some times conflicts with young earth creationists interpretations of the Bible and other religious texts Agnostic Thiesm's polar would be Agnostic atheism where an agnostic has no way of proving or disproving a god or many gods and still disbelieves in him or finds it highly unlikely for such a supernatural being to exist.


The classical philosophical understanding of knowledge is that knowledge is justified true belief. By this definition, it is reasonable to assert that one may hold a belief, and that belief may be true, without asserting that one knows it. Agnostic theism could be interpreted as an admission that it is not possible to justify one's belief in God or gods sufficiently for it to be considered known.

  • According to fideism this logic statement was used:
  • Christian theology teaches that people are saved by faith in the Christian God (i.e. trust in the empirically unprovable).
  • But, if the Christian God's existence can be proven, either empirically or logically, to that extent faith becomes unnecessary or irrelevant.
  • Therefore, if Christian theology is true, no immediate proof of the Christian God's existence is possible.
see also Sola fide


[edit] See also

[edit] References

http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutagnosticism/a/theism.htm

http://www.frihost.com/forums/vt-87921.html

http://2thinkforums.org/anyboard/archive/12696.html

http://exchristian.net/testimonies/2007/03/i-am-agnostic-theist.html

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/ Epistemology] - from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-03 AGNOSTICISM] - from Dictionary of the History of Ideas

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