What is an Agnostic (rituals, morals, Deist, Kingdom, beliefs)

[chookyman]

Agnostics believe in god, but not in the religons which attach themself to god. An Agnostic is one who will search to lifes answers of who we are, what we are, where we came from, the wonders of life and the universe as a whole. More importantly they believe mostly in the fact, that it is not what you do to please god, but it is what good you do in this life that counts in the eyes of god.

Agnostics will seek knowledge and openess of others beliefs to satisfy their own desire for knowledge of god and life. Morals is something which we as humans must learn from our experiences in life with high view to the principles of unconditional love, kindness, humanity, and forgiveness of all human kind, but to persue peace and harmony amongst all and to preserve this world to which we reside and all life within it.

The main point is, if you believe in god, but find it difficult to accept the views of religion you are an agnostic. Rememebr god has no religion, religion was written by man, not by god. Religion is man's view of who they believe god is and what one must do to join gods kingdom. Like there are many races in this world, we need many religions to help people find god. Agnostics however do not believe in following a religion, but your contact with god is direct. You can communicate to god in any means you want, through meditation, thought, prayer, solitude whatever...

An agnostic is greatful to god and thanks god for their life and knows god loves them and accepts them for who they are. So all in all, an agnostic belives in god and all the greatness which comes in god, but not the religions which attach them self to god. Only then can you be truely one with god and free of the chains and the control that religion puts on your life. Love god, because god love you. Be greatful for this life, even if you feel life has delt you with a bad card. Always remeber that your choices will determine your destiny in the future and nothing happens unless you make it happen. All ways thank and be greatful to god during the bad times and good times. Never forget it is god that gave you life and to god youw will return. God loves you through others and it is your duty to preserve and protect all life in this world (whether plant, animal, or human).

:smile:

[eolsunder]

MM well, isnt the actually belief in God a religion? You say that the way you worship or lump together your ideas on how you define God is religion, not the actual belief itself.

I disagree. If you believe in God, you automatically assign yourself HOW you believe in him, and that constitutes a religion. How he appears in your mind, how you thank him, etc. Your quote..

"An agnostic is greatful to god and thanks god for their life and knows god loves them and accepts them for who they are. So all in all, an agnostic belives in god and all the greatness which comes in god"

But you yourself have to define how you are grateful, how you are thankful, how you believe and what things you define as greatness. Does just sitting in your house going I believe in god, but maybe not in religion make you Agnostic? Many people do that. Just because you might not visit a church with others that believe like you do doesn't not make you believe in religion.

For example. Lets say you think your Agnostic and say i dont follow religions but i believe in god. Just the fact you believe in god lays down foundations on your belief, or religion. What you think he does or doesnt do (does he answer prayers, is he responsible for creating animals and plants, is god still about watching over people, does he interact or just watch, what does god look like, how does he manifest). All these are based on your views. If you believe in God, you assign peramiters to him. And those who believe in the same definition are of the same religion. Just the basis that you think God is out there and is responsible for what you think he created assigns you to a religion. Some religions think he created the world in 7 days, some think the world just came up with the rest of the universe and god watches over it. Some think God is the universe, etc.

I cant think of the Agnostic belief as seperate from religion. Simply believing in God puts you into some sort of religious bracket. To me, If you believe in God, you have a religion. A belief in a higher power. You might not call it catholic, or buddist, or christian, or pegan, or whatever, but you have it.

[chookyman]

MMM, yup you could look at it like that... there is a very fine line there... The principle that an agnostic belives in god does not mean they worship god or practice any rituals in the name of god....

Simply believing in a god is better then not, however many claims made by region through godly acts has been proven by scientist as explainable events. What about cloning of animals, how does a spirit / soul get into an animal when it is not biologically made

[Lightkeeper]

quote] What about cloning of animals, how does a spirit / soul get into an animal when it is not biologically made[/quote].

This sounds like a great topic for Religious Discussion. Why don't you post this there?

[The Voice of Reason]

WOW -

Unless I am badly mistaken, Agnostics have come to no conclusion about whether God exists. Most philosophy students recognize two types of Agnostics:
1) Strong Agnostic - someone that does not have an opinion on whether God exists, because they have come to the conclusion that it is irrelevant.
2) Weak Agnostic (of which I am one) - someone that has no proof either way about God's existence. This is usually a result of have an Objectivist, Rationalist view, and having no empirical knowledge that would allow one to draw a conclusion about God's existence.

If you have come to the conclusion that God exists (in any form), then you are by definition either a theist or deist.

[Coconut]

Good day , What if your GOD are attributes, and you dont consider Him/Her/It a Being? Is that recognizing a God by definition of Agnostic either weak or strong?

[The Voice of Reason]

Coconut,

I am not certain I understand what you are asking. Can you give me an example that demonstrates what your question is?

[Coconut]

By that, I mean, What if Your God was "Love, Or Compassion". In other words, it was an Action or expression, rather than a Material being. I do not attach any Personal/Non-Personal Feeling toawrds this GOD, I don't worship or Bow down to it. By exibiting those types of attributes, and living through them, I am one with GOD, or godlike if you wish. Likewise, exibiting the opposite ie. Hatred/Jealosey/Greed, I am not with, or am Without GOD.......... (Sometimes I confuse myself, LOL). although actually thats in writing only, not in my head.... Coconut..

[The Voice of Reason]

Coconut,

If I understand your question correctly, you are asking me "if your God were an emotion (i.e. Love, Caring, etc.) - how would that effect my standing as an Agnostic. (If I am missing the question, I apologize).

My answer to that would be:
If I had empirical knowledge of my God (whatever form it/he/she takes), I would definitely have to move from my stance as an Agnostic into either the theist or deist camp (as appropriate). If I had empirical knowledge that my God did not exist, then I would have to move into the Atheist camp.

I hope I got the question right - if not, my answer will not make sense.
If this is the case, my apologies.

[gnosis]

Gnosis is a latin word meaning "knowledge".
To say one is gnostic, is to say they are "with knowledge".
The letter "a" in latin denotes "without".
Therefore, to say one is agnostic means they are "without knowledge".
What they meant by without knowledge is that they admitted they do not know if there is a god because no one has come back from the grave to tell us. If one believed there was a god, they accpeted that; if one believed there was no god, they accepted that too.
There was an ancient religious sect called the Gnostics. They wrote the Gnostic Gospels and competed with the Christians regarding what was to be held as "truth".