Agnosticism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Types=== ;Strong agnosticism (also called "hard", "closed", "strict", or "permanent agnosticism"): The view that the question of the existence or nonexistence of a deity or deities, and the nature of ultimate reality is unknowable by reason of our natural inability to verify any experience with anything but another subjective experience. A strong agnostic would say, "I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, and neither can you."<ref name="Oppy2006">{{cite book|last=Oppy |first=Graham|title=Arguing about Gods|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DlVtfUxPD14C&pg=PA15|date=September 4, 2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-45889-4|pages=15β}} </ref><ref name="Barnes2003">{{cite book|author=Michael H. Barnes|title=In The Presence of Mystery: An Introduction To The Story Of Human Religiousness|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bhtb2_NYnpoC&pg=PA3|year=2003|publisher=Twenty-Third Publications|isbn=978-1-58595-259-5|pages=3β}} </ref><ref name="Poidevin2010">{{cite book|author=Robin Le Poidevin|title=Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8DKg5MeJtmIC&pg=PT32|date=October 28, 2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-161454-5|pages=32β}}</ref> ;Weak agnosticism (also called "soft", "open", "empirical", "hopeful" or "temporal agnosticism"): The view that the existence or nonexistence of any deities is currently unknown but is not necessarily unknowable; therefore, one will withhold judgment until evidence, if any, becomes available. A weak agnostic would say, "I don't know whether any deities exist or not, but maybe one day, if there is evidence, we can find something out."<ref name="Oppy2006" /><ref name="Barnes2003" /><ref name="Poidevin2010" /> ;Apathetic agnosticism: The view that no amount of debate can prove or disprove the existence of one or more deities, and if one or more deities exist, they do not appear to be concerned about the fate of humans. Therefore, their existence has little to no impact on personal human affairs and should be of little interest. An apathetic agnostic would say, "I don't know whether any deity exists or not, and I don't care if any deity exists or not."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.apatheticagnostic.com/ourchurch/faith.html|title=Commentary on the Articles of Faith|author=John Tyrrell|year=1996|quote=To believe in the existence of a god is an act of faith. To believe in the nonexistence of a god is likewise an act of faith. There is no verifiable evidence that there is a Supreme Being nor is there verifiable evidence there is not a Supreme Being. Faith is not knowledge. We can only state with assurance that we do not know.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807021506/http://www.apatheticagnostic.com/ourchurch/faith.html|archive-date=2007-08-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rahim |first1=Abdur |title=Thinking Outside the Box: The Most Realistic Way of Thinking, Adopting, and Leading Life |date=31 January 2017 |publisher=Xlibris Corporation |isbn=978-1-5245-7387-4 |page=89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f-NPDgAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>Rauch, Jonathan, ''Let It Be: Three Cheers for Apatheism'', ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]'', May 2003</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page