Agnostics and those of faith are not far apart. Generally agnosticism means that one cannot be sure that a deity exists; on the other hand a worshiper may claim the existence of God or gods, but the implication is in virtue of faith which by its very definition cannot be certain, though denying lingering doubt. Agnosticism is in reality skepticism — not able to hold a tangential divinity in the palm of a hand and therefore in all probability does not exist or at least unprovable. Yet many agnostics wish to have it both ways by accepting the idea of faith in order to empower goodness or morality. These so-called “religious” agnostics are not really differentiating from “philosophic” faith, but simply to separate themselves from unmitigated religionists who proclaim certainty on the basis of scripture and historical customs.

In reality, agnosticism to a degree is pointless because it agonizes over a concept that is ostensibly an entity of opposites— God exists or does not — falling into the same trap of linguistics the atheist falls into by illogically assuming the existence of something that does not exist. This trap is not only the proposition of theology but that of the modern scientific concept of the Big Bang that proffers a prior beginning when there was the probability of nothingness, and therefore a First Mover. The agnostic, then, in accepting this cosmic vagary, suspends it unsatisfactorily as “unknowable,” which in tandem connotes “knowable.”

The “humanist” agnostic — humanists deny this as they profess atheism — substitutes “faith” in the evolution of an intelligent species that intuitively senses goodness out of an inherent moral fiber of the humankind in lieu of common faith. Still, even the humanist atheist confesses to the same proposition but without the term faith, preferring natural progression or evolution, which implicitly and ironically is faith.

In short, whether faithful, agnostic or atheist there exists indisputably the ambiguity and ambivalence of something other than their own perceptual reality. We just don’t know, and not because it is unknowable, but rather unexplainable, despite all the convoluted literature.

Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: March 30, 2004.