Agnosticism

===Etymology===
''Agnostic'' ({{ety|grc|ἀ- (a-)|without||[[wikt:γνῶσις|γνῶσις]] (gnōsis)|knowledge}}) was used by Thomas Henry Huxley in a speech at a meeting of the [[Metaphysical Society]] in 1869 to describe his philosophy, which rejects all claims of spiritual or mystical knowledge.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Dixon| first = Thomas| title = Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction| publisher = Oxford University Press| year = 2008| location = Oxford| page = 63| isbn = 978-0-19-929551-7}}
</ref><ref name="EB-Agnosticism">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Antony |first=Flew |title=Agnosticism |url= https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9356/agnosticism |encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=December 15, 2011}}</ref>

Early [[Christianity|Christian]] church leaders used the [[Greek language|Greek]] word ''[[gnosis]]'' (knowledge) to describe "spiritual knowledge". Agnosticism is not to be confused with religious views opposing the ancient religious movement of [[Gnosticism]] in particular; Huxley used the term in a broader, more abstract sense.<ref name="nknxjx">{{cite web |title=ag·nos·tic |website=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2011 |url= http://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=agnostic&submit.x=20&submit.y=28 |access-date= November 15, 2013}}</ref> Huxley identified agnosticism not as a creed but rather as a method of [[Skepticism|skeptical]], evidence-based inquiry.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=97DaE6BzKTsC&pg=PA41 |title=Aphorisms and Reflections |first= Henrietta A.| last=Huxley |publisher= Kessinger Publishing |year=2004 |edition= reprint |pages=41–42 |isbn=978-1-4191-0730-6}}</ref>

The term ''Agnostic'' is also [[cognate]] with the [[Sanskrit]] word ''Ajñasi'' which translates literally to "not knowable", and relates to the ancient Indian philosophical school of [[Ajñana]], which proposes that it is impossible to obtain knowledge of metaphysical nature or ascertain the truth value of philosophical propositions; and even if knowledge was possible, it is useless and disadvantageous for final salvation.

In recent years, scientific literature dealing with neuroscience and psychology has used the word to mean "not knowable".<ref>Oxford English Dictionary, Additions Series, 1993</ref> In technical and marketing literature, "agnostic" can also mean independence from some parameters—for example, "platform agnostic" (referring to [[cross-platform software]])<ref name= SparkSheet>{{cite web |title= What Does Platform Agnostic Mean? 
 |last1= Woodrooffe 
 |first1=Sophie 
|last2=Levy |first2= Dan |website=Sparksheet 
 |url= http://sparksheet.com/what-does-platform-agnostic-mean/ 
 |date=September 9, 2012 
 |access-date=November 15, 2013 
 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140714153217/http://sparksheet.com/what-does-platform-agnostic-mean/ 
 |archive-date=July 14, 2014 
 |url-status=dead 
 |df=mdy 
 }}</ref>
or "[[hardware-agnostic]]".<ref name=Datacenterdynamics>{{cite web |website=Datacenter Dynamics |title=EMC and NetApp - a software-defined storage battle |url=http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2013/07/emc-and-netapp-%E2%80%93-software-defined-storage-battle |first=Yevgeniy|last= Sverdlik |date=July 31, 2013 |access-date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620131749/http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2013/07/emc-and-netapp-%E2%80%93-software-defined-storage-battle |archive-date=June 20, 2014 |url-status=dead |df=mdy }}</ref>