I got to thinking about some of the conversation in this thread and in this other thread.
I personally hold to the idea that the labels "theist" and "atheist" describe belief, and the label "agnostic" describes a position about knowledge. Therefore, I think that it's valid to use terms like "agnostic atheist" or "agnostic theist": both would describe someone who believes certain things, but thinks that definite knowledge is beyond him.
However, there seems to me to be a deficiency of agnostic theists... or at least, a deficiency of people who would self-apply the label. I started thinking about why this would be. I came up with a few possibilities:
- these definitions aren't universally accepted, and tend to be most popular in atheist circles. Theists tend to think that "agnostic" means something like "an undecided person".
- people who believe things very deeply don't like to consider the possibility that their beliefs may be wrong, so even though agnostic theists exist, they don't like to call themselves this.
- most religions make knowledge claims about deities. This runs counter to the central tenet of agnosticism, that knowledge of god(s) is either currently or permanently out of reach.
The last one is the one I'm most interested in. It would imply that agnostics who believe in some sort of god or gods would avoid religions that make knowledge claims about those god(s)... in my mind, this just leaves deism.
Now, I know that a person can be a deist without being an agnostic, but do you think that "agnostic theists" are necessarily deists?
I personally hold to the idea that the labels "theist" and "atheist" describe belief, and the label "agnostic" describes a position about knowledge. Therefore, I think that it's valid to use terms like "agnostic atheist" or "agnostic theist": both would describe someone who believes certain things, but thinks that definite knowledge is beyond him.
However, there seems to me to be a deficiency of agnostic theists... or at least, a deficiency of people who would self-apply the label. I started thinking about why this would be. I came up with a few possibilities:
- these definitions aren't universally accepted, and tend to be most popular in atheist circles. Theists tend to think that "agnostic" means something like "an undecided person".
- people who believe things very deeply don't like to consider the possibility that their beliefs may be wrong, so even though agnostic theists exist, they don't like to call themselves this.
- most religions make knowledge claims about deities. This runs counter to the central tenet of agnosticism, that knowledge of god(s) is either currently or permanently out of reach.
The last one is the one I'm most interested in. It would imply that agnostics who believe in some sort of god or gods would avoid religions that make knowledge claims about those god(s)... in my mind, this just leaves deism.
Now, I know that a person can be a deist without being an agnostic, but do you think that "agnostic theists" are necessarily deists?