Agnosticism

===Theistic===
Theistic critics claim that agnosticism is impossible in practice, since a person can live only either as if God did not exist (''etsi deus non-daretur''), or as if God did exist (''etsi deus daretur'').<ref name=SM>
{{cite web
 |url=http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/125081?eng=y 
 |title=Habermas writes to Ratzinger and Ruini responds 
 |author=Sandro Magister 
 |year=2007 
 |access-date=May 25, 2008 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221193703/http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/125081?eng=y
 |archive-date=February 21, 2014
 |url-status=live
 |df=mdy 
}}</ref><ref name=CCC>{{cite book| title=Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures| first=Joseph| last=Ratzinger| isbn= 978-1-58617-142-1|publisher=Ignatius Press|year=2006|pages=87–89}}</ref>

====Christian====
According to [[Pope Benedict XVI]], strong agnosticism in particular contradicts itself in affirming the power of reason to know scientific [[truth]].<ref name=YOJC/><ref name=TT/> He blames the exclusion of reasoning from religion and ethics for dangerous pathologies such as crimes against humanity and ecological disasters.<ref name=YOJC>{{cite book| title=The Yes of Jesus Christ: Spiritual Exercises in Faith, Hope, and Love| first=Joseph| last=Ratzinger|publisher=Cross Roads Publishing|year=2005}}
</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2023}}<ref name=TT>{{cite book| title=Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief And World Religions| first=Joseph| last=Ratzinger|publisher=[[Ignatius Press]]|year=2004}}</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2023}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/papal-address-at-university-of-regensburg |title=Papal Address at University of Regensburg |publisher=zenit.org |date=September 12, 2006 |access-date=June 29, 2014 |author=Benedict XVI |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140601043308/http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/papal-address-at-university-of-regensburg |archive-date=June 1, 2014 |url-status=live |df=mdy }}</ref>
"Agnosticism", said Benedict, "is always the fruit of a refusal of that knowledge which is in fact offered to man&nbsp;... The knowledge of God has always existed".<ref name=TT/> He asserted that agnosticism is a choice of comfort, pride, dominion, and utility over truth, and is opposed by the following attitudes: the keenest [[self-criticism]], humble listening to the whole of existence, the persistent patience and self-correction of the [[scientific method]], a readiness to be purified by the truth.<ref name=YOJC/>

The [[Catholic Church]] sees merit in examining what it calls "partial agnosticism", specifically those systems that "do not aim at constructing a complete philosophy of the unknowable, but at excluding special kinds of truth, notably religious, from the domain of knowledge".<ref name="CEnc1">{{cite encyclopedia
 |title=Agnosticism 
 |publisher=[[Catholic Encyclopedia]] 
 |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01215c.htm 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140701133447/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01215c.htm
 |archive-date=July 1, 2014
 |url-status=live
 |df=mdy 
}}
</ref> However, the Church is historically opposed to a full denial of the capacity of human reason to know God. The [[First Vatican Council|Council of the Vatican]] declares, "God, the beginning and end of all, can, by the natural light of human reason, be known with certainty from the works of creation".<ref name="CEnc1"/>

[[Blaise Pascal]] argued that even if there were truly no evidence for God, agnostics should consider what is now known as [[Pascal's Wager]]: the [[Infinity|infinite]] expected value of acknowledging God is always greater than the finite expected value of not acknowledging his existence, and thus it is a safer "bet" to choose God.<ref name=PKPW>{{cite web |url=http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/pascals-wager.htm| title=Argument from Pascal's Wager| year=2007 | access-date=May 25, 2008| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605044148/http://peterkreeft.com/topics/pascals-wager.htm| archive-date=June 5, 2008 | url-status=live}}</ref>
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