Agnosticism

  • VGLythia

    VGLythia (100)

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    I'm agnostic-theistic. I believe in God, but I don't believe in many other Christian beliefs (I was raised Baptist, Christian). Religion also doesn't have large impact in my life, but I don't have anything against those who construct their lives around religion.

    One of my close friends is Catholic, and we both believe that science and religion CAN go hand-in-hand. I'm a huge science/math nerd, and he is too. In the end, however, the world just goes on, and no one can ever be sure of anything, and then they die. All anyone can do is just make it through.
    November 10th, 2012 at 05:26pm
  • Sharksnacks.

    Sharksnacks. (100)

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    I believe that religious stories, regardless of whom they come from are meant as metaphors for human nature.

    I was born to a Protestant mom and a Jewish dad, I struggled a lot with religious confusion when I was younger. I wanted to believe in some higher power, and to me I was looking in the wrong places for it. I've been totally nihilist too, but I think the ability to be a good person exists in us all. That is beautiful enough for me to believe that there is a reason to go on.

    Also just a theory, but I think that when a person dies, their afterlife looks like how they planned it to be in their heads. If a person dies guilty and believes in some form of hell, that might be what their existence is in their eternal rest. Or a person could die thinking that they were really great, but they weren't.

    Problem is, we won't know what is going to happen after death until it happens, or if anything even happens at all. So why exert energy on something that is likely not true? Be the best person you can be, have morals, wear your heart on your sleeve, don't be ignorant, yet don't be overly fearful.

    Live, don't just exist. :]
    January 1st, 2013 at 10:41am
  • ThePiesEndure

    ThePiesEndure (115)

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    @ Raitoningu
    Actually, according to the Bible it can be known ;). But, yeah...we can't really know.
    January 8th, 2013 at 04:11pm
  • Raitoningu

    Raitoningu (100)

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    @ The Pies Endure
    But there is nothing to prove that what's in the bible will/can actually happen, so it can't be known.
    January 9th, 2013 at 08:12pm
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    @ The Pies Endure
    How can it be known? I thought the entire point of believing in God/Jesus was to have faith? Faith as in believing something is true without direct confirmation of it.
    January 9th, 2013 at 08:18pm
  • ThePiesEndure

    ThePiesEndure (115)

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    @ Raitoningu
    Nothing scientific, no.

    @ the drupocalypse.
    Faith is reasoning trust in a person, it isn't just faith in something without direct confirmation of it. If I didn't believe He was real I couldn't trust in Him. And the Bible and my experiences are confirmation enough.
    January 10th, 2013 at 04:11pm
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    @ The Pies Endure
    But in a scientific manner, you wouldn't be able to use just your experiences or the Bible to prove that God exists (or people would have done it). You can on that and then you have to go on faith. There is no proof, no way to say God is real with just experiences and the Bible. You have to believe, you have to have faith, you can never be 100% sure in a way that is acceptable.
    January 10th, 2013 at 04:27pm
  • ThePiesEndure

    ThePiesEndure (115)

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    @ the drupocalypse.
    Depends on one's definition of proof. But, you are right to a point. However, it does say in the Bible that God can be known, that's all I was getting at. I'm not saying that He can be scientifically empirically known.
    January 10th, 2013 at 04:50pm
  • Lee Hi;

    Lee Hi; (285)

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    I suppose I would be classified as Agnostic. I neither accept or deny the existence of a God and I choose to have no opinion on his existence. I was raised Christian but my parents were never that involved in the faith and during my early high school years, I began to fall out of it and question it. I've realized that Christianity is just not for me, nor is any religion. I don't really have that much faith in organized religion.

    However, I don't judge people who have faith in it and believe. Pretty much all of my friends are Catholics and Christians and none of them mind my stance nor do I mind theirs. At first, my friend J was upset during my 9th grade year when I said I was starting to not believe in God and said that I shouldn't believe that because she wanted me to go to heaven. Well, that certainly didn't make me believe anymore. I don't like the idea of not gaining entrance to a peaceful afterlife simply because you don't believe in something. I also realized, though, that Atheism wasn't for me as well as there was just no way to tell of the existence of a God or not. So now, I'm just stick with Agnosticism.
    June 6th, 2013 at 04:41am
  • wxyz

    wxyz (240)

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    DamnYouJackSparrow!:
    I also realized, though, that Atheism wasn't for me as well as there was just no way to tell of the existence of a God or not.
    Don't forget that the fact that there's no way of telling can be compatible with atheism, though. I'm an atheist because I don't believe in a god, while accepting that there is (currently) no way of knowing either way. I suppose I consider myself an atheist because I consider lack of belief - in the mean time - to be the option that makes more sense to me.
    June 7th, 2013 at 02:01am
  • ur_best_nightmare

    ur_best_nightmare (210)

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    Sardonic Grin:
    I just call myself Agnostic because I have yet to fine a word that really defines my beliefs. I believe there is some form of a higher power- be it God or multiple gods or a giant mermaid with lazer eyes- but I do not believe in organized religion. I don't agree with the words in the bibles entirely, I don't feel like I have to go to church every Sunday in order to get into heaven, and I never liked some of the extremist catholics. Uhm, yeah. I believe in science mostly, but there is of course a possiblity of that being false.

    Basically I think the whole science vs religion debate is like two guys fighting over the same girl. So yeah I lean more towards science than religion though.

    Yeah, so, my beliefs even confuse me XD
    I think that this sums it up perfectly for me. I find it really interesting that there are people that label themselves as "Agnostic," yet don't believe in sort of higher power. I don't know, but to me, that's the difference between Agnosticism and Atheism. I believe and know that there is a higher power, but do not have a name or a set of rules for that higher power. I believed Atheism to be where one believes in only science, or no higher power of any sort. Which is all well and good, to each his own, but for any of you who do identify as Agnostic and don't believe in a higher power, how do you explain the difference between that and Atheism? I enjoy learning about other peoples' beliefs (or lack thereof), and I really am curious.
    June 21st, 2013 at 08:54am
  • Collin Berend

    Collin Berend (230)

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    @ Unapologetic Apathy
    Do you know for a fake goblins, sea monsters, the spirit world, aliens, Thor, Zeus, Demi-Gods, Big Foot and other myths are real? No because there is nothing that proves they are real. So until there is evidence, it is logically safe to say they are not real or they do not till otherwise proven.

    A lot of agnostics I know say they wont even be atheist because we can not know either way. However, by that logic you would be agnostic about literally everything that has no evidence. While I understand the place and reason they take the middle, saying something is likely not real based on there being no evidence for that claim of it being real is fairly logical.
    July 6th, 2014 at 12:33am
  • Eve of Winter

    Eve of Winter (100)

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    In my personal opinion, religion is a matter of faith. I'm agnostic. I was Catholic up until I was about eight, and then I went atheist for a while, but it didn't really sit comfortably with me so now I'm agnostic. To be honest, I love debating, but debating about the existence of God really is pointless, as you cannot prove anything. I personally believe that when the Bible was written, men were trying to figure out the questions we still ask today, and added in their own prejudice.
    August 1st, 2014 at 03:06pm
  • AmorarEsDeVivir

    AmorarEsDeVivir (100)

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    Alex; periphery.:
    Don't forget that the fact that there's no way of telling can be compatible with atheism, though. I'm an atheist because I don't believe in a god, while accepting that there is (currently) no way of knowing either way. I suppose I consider myself an atheist because I consider lack of belief - in the mean time - to be the option that makes more sense to me.
    There's a term for this: Agnostic atheist. A lot of people seem to think "Agnostic" and "Atheist" are completely different things, but...well, I see this graphic sometimes that's divided into four quadrants. The left quadrants are "agnostic" and the right are "gnostic;" the upper quadrants are "atheist" and the lower are "theist." Agnostic vs. gnostic basically is not knowing vs. knowing.

    So I identify as "agnostic atheist;" that is to say, I don't believe in God, but I'm not making any claims because I know I could be wrong. What most people think of as atheist is the gnostic atheist; that is to say, those who don't believe in any god or gods and feel that that is certain knowledge and fact. Then of course you have the agnostic theists, who believe in god but make no claims, and the gnostic theists, who believe in god as objective fact.

    ...So, sorry if I got a bit off-topic here. But yeah. You're right--agnosticism and atheism can go hand in hand. So can agnosticism and theism, or gnosticism and atheism/theism. From what you're saying you seem to fall in the "agnostic atheist" category with me.
    September 5th, 2014 at 08:21am
  • MythicalMassacre

    MythicalMassacre (100)

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    I'm Agnostic, and Wiccan, so I don't know what is out there really, I believe in a Purgatory, but Heaven & Hell is still a mystery to me as God is too. You really just never know..
    November 4th, 2014 at 06:14pm
  • Lunar

    Lunar (100)

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    November 13th, 2014 at 10:21pm