Agnosticism

Updated: 5/20/2026, 7:06:13 PM Wikipedia source

Agnosticism is a position that questions the existence of God or the divine. On a psychological level, it is a personal attitude that suspends judgment, withholding both belief and disbelief. In philosophy, agnosticism is often treated as a general claim stating that God's existence is unknown or unknowable. In the broadest sense, agnosticism is not restricted to theology and can also express skeptical attitudes toward nonreligious claims. Agnosticism contrasts with theism, which affirms God's existence, and atheism, which denies it. It is understood either as a neutral middle ground between the two or as a rejection of their shared assumption that knowledge is attainable. Agnosticism is often characterized as an informed indecision by someone who has reflected on the issue but has not reached a conclusion, distinguishing agnostics from those who have never considered the issue. It overlaps with skepticism and fallibilism, which deny that knowledge or absolute certainty are possible. Various arguments for and against agnosticism are discussed in the academic literature. Proponents typically hold that evidence regarding God's existence is inconclusive and that intellectual humility demands suspending judgment. Different groups of critics contend that there is decisive evidence either for or against God's existence, or that the absence of decisive evidence leaves disbelief, rather than the suspension of judgment, as the default attitude. Agnosticism is often associated with a secular lifestyle that resembles atheism in practice. However, it does not necessarily preclude religion. For example, agnostic theists believe in God while denying that true knowledge of the divine is possible. The term agnosticism was coined in the 19th century by Thomas Henry Huxley, who rejected speculative theological and metaphysical conclusions without sufficient evidence. However, its precursors and theoretical roots trace back to antiquity, including ideas found in ancient Greek and Indian thought.

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Philosophers discuss the sense in which agnosticism involves a question. For example, Jane Friedman characterizes it as
Some religious societies discriminate against agnostics, associating them with social deviance or other negative traits.
Unlike organized religions, agnosticism is not a codified institution and lacks canonical scriptures or formal membershi
The term agnosticism is not the direct opposite of gnosticism, which refers to a family of Hellenistic religions that fl
Another conception equates the distinction between weak and strong agnosticism with the distinction between temporary an
Ignosticism, a related view, challenges the definition of the word God, arguing that the term is incoherent or meaningle
Existential agnosticism can be defined as a subtype of truth agnosticism targeting the proposition that the doubted enti
Semantic agnosticism is sometimes contrasted with meta-linguistic agnosticism, which suspends judgment about whether rel
For example, fideism contrasts faith with reason and asserts that faith is better at arriving at religious truths. Negat
The exact definition and the divine powers attributed to deities vary widely among traditions, reflected in the contrast
The Lockean thesis is sometimes combined with Bayesianism, which conceptualizes degrees of confidence as numbers between
Guidelines of belief change include the principle of conservatism, which states that one is justified to continue believ
Another argument compares the number of possible worlds with and without a creator. It holds that for each uncreated wor
Russell's teapot is a similar thought experiment illustrating how the burden of proof lies with those who make unfalsifi
A comparable outlook is also found in the thought of Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – c. 1328).
Responding to Schellenberg, James Elliott proposed ietsism as the theory that there is an unspecified something that des
Chuman 2000 Cotter & Lee 2020, § Agnosticism Defined Fallon & Hyman 2020, pp. 7–8 Cliteur 2010, pp. 57–58
https://books.google.com/books?id=vfkFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7
Rowe 1998, Lead section, § 1. Degrees of Agnosticism Wagner 2022, pp. 671–672, 694 Archer 2024, pp. 1–2, 6, 203–204 Oppy
https://books.google.com/books?id=ekj8EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1
Oppy 2018, p. 4 Ferrari & Incurvati 2022, pp. 368–369 Archer 2024, pp. 2, 7–8 Wagner 2022, pp. 673–674
https://books.google.com/books?id=ekj8EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2
Archer 2022, pp. 1–5 Friedman 2013, pp. 145–146