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Do not fill this in! ==History== ===Hindu philosophy=== {{See also|Sanjaya Belatthaputta|Ajñana}} Throughout the history of [[Hinduism]] there has been a strong tradition of philosophic speculation and skepticism.<ref name="Kramer1986" /><ref>{{cite web |author=Subodh Varma |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/spirituality/vintage-wisdom/The-gods-came-afterwards/articleshow/6014217.cms?referral=PM |title=The gods came afterwards |work=[[The Times of India]] |date=May 6, 2011 |access-date=June 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151105235331/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/spirituality/vintage-wisdom/The-gods-came-afterwards/articleshow/6014217.cms?referral=PM |archive-date=November 5, 2015 |url-status=live |df=mdy }}</ref> The [[Rig Veda]] takes an agnostic view on the fundamental question of how the universe and the gods were created. [[Nasadiya Sukta]] (''Creation Hymn'') in the tenth chapter of the Rig Veda says:<ref name="Kramer1986">{{cite book|author=Kenneth Kramer|title=World Scriptures: An Introduction to Comparative Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RzUAu-43W5oC&pg=PA34|date=January 1986|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=978-0-8091-2781-8|pages=34–}} </ref><ref name="Christian2011"> {{cite book|last=Christian |first=David|title=Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RdVmDjwTtQC&pg=PA18|date=September 1, 2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95067-2|pages=18–}} </ref><ref name="Singh2008"> {{cite book|author=Upinder Singh|title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA206|year=2008|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=978-81-317-1120-0|pages=206–}}</ref> {{blockquote|<poem>But, after all, who knows, and who can say Whence it all came, and how creation happened? The gods themselves are later than creation, so who knows truly whence it has arisen? Whence all creation had its origin, He, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not, He, who surveys it all from highest heaven, He knows – or maybe even he does not know.</poem>}} ===Hume, Kant, and Kierkegaard=== [[Aristotle]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.logicmuseum.com/ontological/aristotleontological.htm |title=Aristotle on the existence of God |publisher=Logicmuseum.com |access-date=February 9, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530101819/http://www.logicmuseum.com/ontological/aristotleontological.htm |archive-date=May 30, 2014 |url-status=live |df=mdy }} </ref> [[Anselm of Canterbury|Anselm]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/anselm.asp |work=Internet History Sourcebooks Project |publisher=Fordham.edu |access-date=|title=Anselm on God's Existence |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140531202448/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/anselm.asp |archive-date=May 31, 2014 |url-status=live |df=mdy }} </ref><ref name=williams>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2013/entries/anselm/ |title=Saint Anselm |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=June 29, 2014 |author=Williams, Thomas |year=2013 |edition=Spring 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202055456/http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2013/entries/anselm/ |archive-date=December 2, 2013 |url-status=live |df=mdy }}</ref> [[Aquinas]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas3.asp |title=Internet History Sourcebooks Project |publisher=Fordham.edu |access-date=February 9, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814182225/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas3.asp |archive-date=August 14, 2014 |url-status=live |df=mdy }} </ref><ref name="Owens1980"> {{cite book|last=Owens |first=Joseph|title=Saint Thomas Aquinas on the Existence of God: The Collected Papers of Joseph Owens|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8tLl5gnW5TMC|year=1980|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-87395-401-3}} </ref> [[Descartes]],<ref>{{cite web |url = http://oregonstate.edu/instruction/phl302/philosophers/descartes-god.html |title = Descartes' Proof for the Existence of God |publisher = Oregonstate.edu |access-date = February 9, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140222062837/http://oregonstate.edu/instruction/phl302/philosophers/descartes-god.html |archive-date = February 22, 2014 |url-status = dead |df = mdy }} </ref> and [[Gödel's ontological proof|Gödel]] presented arguments attempting to rationally prove the existence of God. The skeptical empiricism of [[David Hume]], the [[antinomy|antinomies]] of [[Immanuel Kant]], and the existential philosophy of [[Søren Kierkegaard]] convinced many later philosophers to abandon these attempts, regarding it impossible to construct any unassailable proof for the existence or non-existence of God.<ref name="RoweRoutledge-online">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.texttribe.com/routledge/A/Agnosticism.html |title=Agnosticism |first=William L. |last=Rowe |author-link=William L. Rowe |encyclopedia=[[Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |isbn=978-0-415-07310-3 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1998 |editor=Edward Craig |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722184326/http://www.texttribe.com/routledge/A/Agnosticism.html |archive-date=July 22, 2011 |access-date=April 17, 2012}}</ref> In his 1844 book, ''[[Philosophical Fragments]]'', Kierkegaard writes:<ref>Kierkegaard, Søren. ''Philosophical Fragments''. Ch. 3 </ref> {{blockquote|Let us call this unknown something: God. It is nothing more than a name we assign to it. The idea of demonstrating that this unknown something (God) exists, could scarcely suggest itself to Reason. For if God does not exist it would of course be impossible to prove it; and if he does exist it would be folly to attempt it. For at the very outset, in beginning my proof, I would have presupposed it, not as doubtful but as certain (a presupposition is never doubtful, for the very reason that it is a presupposition), since otherwise I would not begin, readily understanding that the whole would be impossible if he did not exist. But if when I speak of proving God's existence I mean that I propose to prove that the Unknown, which exists, is God, then I express myself unfortunately. For in that case I do not prove anything, least of all an existence, but merely develop the content of a conception.}} [[David Hume|Hume]] was Huxley's favourite philosopher, calling him "the Prince of Agnostics".<ref>{{cite book|title=A Hundred Years of British Philosophy|first= Rudolf|last= Metz |page= 111|publisher = G. Allen & Unwin Limited|date= 1938|isbn = 9780598425171}}</ref> [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]] wrote to his mistress, telling of a visit by Hume to the [[Baron D'Holbach]], and describing how a word for the position that Huxley would later describe as agnosticism did not seem to exist, or at least was not common knowledge, at the time. {{blockquote|The first time that M. Hume found himself at the table of the Baron, he was seated beside him. I don't know for what purpose the English philosopher took it into his head to remark to the Baron that he did not believe in atheists, that he had never seen any. The Baron said to him: "Count how many we are here." We are eighteen. The Baron added: "It isn't too bad a showing to be able to point out to you fifteen at once: the three others haven't made up their minds."<ref>Ernest Campbell Mossner, ''The Life of David Hume'', 2014, pg.483</ref>|Denis Diderot}} ===United Kingdom=== ====Charles Darwin==== [[File:Charles Darwin seated crop.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Charles Darwin]] in 1854]] Raised in a religious environment, [[Charles Darwin]] (1809–1882) studied to be an [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] clergyman. While eventually doubting parts of his faith, Darwin continued to help in church affairs, even while avoiding church attendance. Darwin stated that it would be "absurd to doubt that a man might be an ardent theist and an evolutionist".<ref name=Fordyce>[http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-12041 Letter 12041] – Darwin, C. R. to Fordyce, John, May 7, 1879. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140618112333/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-12041 Archived] from the original on June 29, 2014.</ref><ref name=spencer>[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/sep/17/darwin-evolution-religion Darwin's Complex loss of Faith] ''[[The Guardian]]'' September 17, 2009. [https://web.archive.org/web/20141006221012/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/sep/17/darwin-evolution-religion Archived] from the original on June 29, 2014</ref> Although reticent about his religious views, in 1879 he wrote that "I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. – I think that generally ... an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind."<ref name=Fordyce/><ref name=Belief>{{cite web|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/content/view/130/125/|title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Belief: historical essay|access-date=November 25, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225124103/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/content/view/130/125/ |archive-date=February 25, 2009 }}</ref> ====Thomas Henry Huxley==== [[File:ThomasHenryHuxley.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Thomas Henry Huxley]] in the 1860s. He was the first to decisively coin the term ''agnosticism''.]] Agnostic views are as old as [[philosophical skepticism]], but the terms agnostic and agnosticism were created by [[Thomas Henry Huxley|Huxley]] (1825–1895) to sum up his thoughts on contemporary developments of metaphysics about the "unconditioned" ([[Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet|William Hamilton]]) and the "unknowable" ([[Herbert Spencer]]). Though Huxley began to use the term ''agnostic'' in 1869, his opinions had taken shape some time before that date. In a letter of September 23, 1860, to [[Charles Kingsley]], Huxley discussed his views extensively:<ref name="Huxley1997">{{cite book|author=Thomas Henry Huxley|author-link=Thomas Henry Huxley|title=The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley|url=https://archive.org/details/majorproseofthom00huxl|url-access=registration|year=1997|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-1864-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/majorproseofthom00huxl/page/357 357]–}} </ref><ref name="Huxley2012"> {{cite book|author=Leonard Huxley|title=Thomas Henry Huxley A Character Sketch|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YKNj1u0R4JcC&pg=PT41|date=February 7, 2012|publisher=tredition|isbn=978-3-8472-0297-4|pages=41–}}</ref> {{blockquote|I neither affirm nor deny the immortality of man. I see no reason for believing it, but, on the other hand, I have no means of disproving it. I have no ''a priori'' objections to the doctrine. No man who has to deal daily and hourly with nature can trouble himself about ''a priori'' difficulties. Give me such evidence as would justify me in believing in anything else, and I will believe that. Why should I not? It is not half so wonderful as the conservation of force or the indestructibility of matter ... It is no use to talk to me of analogies and probabilities. I know what I mean when I say I believe in the law of the inverse squares, and I will not rest my life and my hopes upon weaker convictions ... That my personality is the surest thing I know may be true. But the attempt to conceive what it is leads me into mere verbal subtleties. I have champed up all that chaff about the ego and the non-ego, noumena and phenomena, and all the rest of it, too often not to know that in attempting even to think of these questions, the human intellect flounders at once out of its depth.}} And again, to the same correspondent, May 6, 1863:<ref name="HuxleyHuxley2011">{{cite book|author1=Leonard Huxley|author2=Thomas Henry Huxley|title=Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-azeZXAf6MMC&pg=PA347|date=December 22, 2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-04045-7|pages=347–}}</ref> {{blockquote|I have never had the least sympathy with the ''a priori'' reasons against orthodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible antipathy to all the atheistic and infidel school. Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling, atheist and infidel. I cannot see one shadow or tittle of evidence that the great unknown underlying the phenomenon of the universe stands to us in the relation of a Father [who] loves us and cares for us as Christianity asserts. So with regard to the other great Christian dogmas, immortality of soul and future state of rewards and punishments, what possible objection can I—who am compelled perforce to believe in the immortality of what we call Matter and Force, and in a very unmistakable present state of rewards and punishments for our deeds—have to these doctrines? Give me a scintilla of evidence, and I am ready to jump at them.}} Of the origin of the name agnostic to describe this attitude, Huxley gave the following account:<ref>{{cite book| title=Collected Essays, Vol. V: Science and Christian Tradition| first=Thomas| last=Huxley| isbn= 1-85506-922-9| publisher=Macmillan and Co 1893| pages=237–239}}</ref> {{blockquote|When I reached intellectual maturity and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; Christian or a freethinker; I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until, at last, I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain "gnosis"{{mdash}}had, more or less successfully, solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble. And, with Hume and Kant on my side, I could not think myself presumptuous in holding fast by that opinion ... So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of "agnostic". It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the "gnostic" of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant. ... To my great satisfaction the term took.}} In 1889, Huxley wrote:{{blockquote|Therefore, although it be, as I believe, demonstrable that we have no real knowledge of the authorship, or of the date of composition of the Gospels, as they have come down to us, and that nothing better than more or less probable guesses can be arrived at on that subject.<ref>{{cite book|last=Huxley|first=Thomas Henry|author-link=Thomas Henry Huxley|title=Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_b7aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA364|year=1892|publisher=Macmillan|page=364|chapter=Agnosticism And Christianity|quote=Agnosticism And Christianity: Therefore, although it be, as I believe, demonstrable that we have no real knowledge of the authorship, or of the date of composition of the Gospels, as they have come down to us, and that nothing better than more or less probable guesses can be arrived at on that subject.}}</ref>}} ====William Stewart Ross==== [[William Stewart Ross]] (1844–1906) wrote under the name of Saladin. He was associated with Victorian Freethinkers and the organization the British Secular Union. He edited the ''[[Secular Review]]'' from 1882; it was renamed ''Agnostic Journal and Eclectic Review'' and closed in 1907. Ross championed agnosticism in opposition to the atheism of [[Charles Bradlaugh]] as an open-ended spiritual exploration.<ref>Alastair Bonnett 'The Agnostic Saladin' ''History Today'', 2013, 63,2, pp. 47–52 </ref> In ''Why I am an Agnostic'' ({{circa|1889}}) he claims that agnosticism is "the very reverse of atheism".<ref name="RossTaylor1889">{{cite book|author1=William Stewart Ross|author2=Joseph Taylor|title=Why I Am an Agnostic: Being a Manual of Agnosticism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nGNEmgEACAAJ|year=1889|publisher=W. Stewart & Company}}</ref> ====Bertrand Russell==== [[File:Russell1907-2.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Bertrand Russell]]]] [[Bertrand Russell]] (1872–1970) declared ''[[Why I Am Not a Christian]]'' in 1927, a classic statement of agnosticism.<ref name="Users.drew.edu">{{cite web|url=http://users.drew.edu/~jlenz/whynot.html |title=Why I Am Not A Christian, by Bertrand Russell |publisher=Users.drew.edu |date=March 6, 1927 |access-date=February 9, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301002401/http://www.users.drew.edu/~jlenz/whynot.html |archive-date=March 1, 2014 |url-status=live |df=mdy }}</ref><ref name="Russell1992"> {{cite book|author=Bertrand Russell|title=Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_f6LMwEACAAJ|year=1992|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-07918-1}} </ref> He calls upon his readers to "stand on their own two feet and look fair and square at the world with a fearless attitude and a free intelligence".<ref name="Russell1992" /> In 1939, Russell gave a lecture on ''The existence and nature of God'', in which he characterized himself as an atheist. He said:<ref>{{cite book| last=Russell| first= Bertrand| title=Collected Papers, Vol 10|page=255}}</ref> {{blockquote|The existence and nature of God is a subject of which I can discuss only half. If one arrives at a negative conclusion concerning the first part of the question, the second part of the question does not arise; and my position, as you may have gathered, is a negative one on this matter.}} However, later in the same lecture, discussing modern non-anthropomorphic concepts of God, Russell states:<ref>''Collected Papers, Vol. 10'', p. 258</ref> {{blockquote|That sort of God is, I think, not one that can actually be disproved, as I think the omnipotent and benevolent creator can.}} In Russell's 1947 pamphlet, ''Am I An Atheist or an Agnostic?'' (subtitled ''A Plea For Tolerance in the Face of New Dogmas''), he ruminates on the problem of what to call himself:<ref name="Russell1997"> {{cite book|author=Bertrand Russell|title=Last Philosophical Testament: 1943–68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r1jBN5iehKsC&pg=PA91|year=1997|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-09409-2|pages=91–}}</ref> {{blockquote|As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.}} In his 1953 essay, ''What Is An Agnostic?'' Russell states:<ref name="Russell2009">{{cite book|author=Bertrand Russell|title=The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lm58AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA557|date=March 2, 2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-02867-2|pages=557–}} </ref> {{blockquote|An agnostic thinks it impossible to know the truth in matters such as God and the future life with which Christianity and other religions are concerned. Or, if not impossible, at least impossible at the present time. Are Agnostics Atheists? No. An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial.}} Later in the essay, Russell adds:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scepsis.net/eng/articles/id_5.php |title='What Is an agnostic?' by Bertrand Russell |publisher=Scepsis.net |access-date=February 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130822181953/http://scepsis.net/eng/articles/id_5.php |archive-date=August 22, 2013 |url-status=live |df=mdy }}</ref> {{blockquote|I think that if I heard a voice from the sky predicting all that was going to happen to me during the next twenty-four hours, including events that would have seemed highly improbable, and if all these events then produced to happen, I might perhaps be convinced at least of the existence of some superhuman intelligence.}} ====Leslie Weatherhead==== {{See also|Christian agnosticism}} {{Wikiquote|Leslie Weatherhead}} In 1965, Christian theologian [[Leslie Weatherhead]] (1893–1976) published ''The Christian Agnostic'', in which he argues:<ref name="Weatherhead1990">{{cite book|last=Weatherhead |first=Leslie D.|title=The Christian Agnostic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ZODJwAACAAJ|date=September 1990|publisher=Abingdon Press|isbn=978-0-687-06980-4}} </ref> {{blockquote|... many professing agnostics are nearer belief in the true God than are many conventional church-goers who believe in a body that does not exist whom they miscall God.}} Although radical and unpalatable to conventional theologians, Weatherhead's ''agnosticism'' falls far short of Huxley's, and short even of ''weak agnosticism'':<ref name="Weatherhead1990" /> {{blockquote|Of course, the human soul will always have the power to reject God, for choice is essential to its nature, but I cannot believe that anyone will finally do this.}} ===United States=== ====Robert G. Ingersoll==== [[File:RobertGIngersoll.jpg|thumb|[[Robert G. Ingersoll]]]] [[Robert G. Ingersoll]] (1833–1899), an [[Illinois]] lawyer and politician who evolved into a well-known and sought-after orator in 19th-century America, has been referred to as the "Great Agnostic".<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Brandt | first1 = Eric T. |first2=Timothy |last2=Larsen | title = The Old Atheism Revisited: Robert G. Ingersoll and the Bible | journal = Journal of the Historical Society | volume = 11 | issue = 2 | year = 2011 | pages = 211–238 | doi=10.1111/j.1540-5923.2011.00330.x}}</ref> In an 1896 lecture titled ''Why I Am An Agnostic'', Ingersoll related why he was an agnostic:<ref name="infidels1">{{cite web|url=http://infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/why_i_am_agnostic.html |date=1896 |first1=Robert Green |last1=Ingersoll |title=Why I Am Agnostic|publisher=Internet Infidels |access-date=February 2, 2014}}</ref> {{blockquote|Is there a supernatural power—an arbitrary mind—an enthroned God—a supreme will that sways the tides and currents of the world—to which all causes bow? I do not deny. I do not know—but I do not believe. I believe that the natural is supreme—that from the infinite chain no link can be lost or broken—that there is no supernatural power that can answer prayer—no power that worship can persuade or change—no power that cares for man. I believe that with infinite arms Nature embraces the all—that there is no interference—no chance—that behind every event are the necessary and countless causes, and that beyond every event will be and must be the necessary and countless effects. Is there a God? I do not know. Is man immortal? I do not know. One thing I do know, and that is, that neither hope, nor fear, belief, nor denial, can change the fact. It is as it is, and it will be as it must be.}} In the conclusion of the speech he simply sums up the agnostic position as:<ref name="infidels1"/> {{blockquote|We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know.}} In 1885, Ingersoll explained his comparative view of agnosticism and atheism as follows:<ref>{{cite book |last=Jacoby |first=Susan |date=2013 |title=The Great Agnostic |publisher=Yale University Press |page =17 | isbn=978-0-300-13725-5 }}</ref> {{blockquote|The Agnostic is an Atheist. The Atheist is an Agnostic. The Agnostic says, 'I do not know, but I do not believe there is any God.' The Atheist says the same.}}{{See also|Physical determinism}} ==== Bernard Iddings Bell ==== Canon [[Bernard Iddings Bell]] (1886–1958), a popular cultural commentator, Episcopal priest, and author, lauded the necessity of agnosticism in ''Beyond Agnosticism: A Book for Tired Mechanists'', calling it the foundation of "all intelligent Christianity".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/bibell/goodnews/02.html|title=The Good News, by Bernard Iddings Bell (1921)|website=anglicanhistory.org|access-date=2019-02-21}}</ref> Agnosticism was a temporary mindset in which one rigorously questioned the truths of the age, including the way in which one believed God.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The religious roots of postmodernism in American culture: an analysis of the postmodern theory of Bernard Iddings Bell and its continued relevance to contemporary postmodern theory and literary criticism.|last=Brauer|first=Kristen D.|publisher=University of Glasgow|year=2007|location=Glasgow, Scotland|pages=32}}</ref> His view of [[Robert G. Ingersoll|Robert Ingersoll]] and [[Thomas Paine]] was that they were not denouncing true Christianity but rather "a gross perversion of it".<ref name=":0" /> Part of the misunderstanding stemmed from ignorance of the concepts of God and religion.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unfashionable Convictions|last=Bell|first=Bernard Iddings|publisher=Harper & Brothers|year=1931|location=New York and London|pages=20}}</ref> Historically, a god was any real, perceivable force that ruled the lives of humans and inspired admiration, love, fear, and homage; religion was the practice of it. Ancient peoples worshiped gods with real counterparts, such as [[Mammon]] (money and material things), [[Nabu]] (rationality), or [[Baal|Ba'al]] (violent weather); Bell argued that modern peoples were still paying homage—with their lives and their children's lives—to these old gods of wealth, physical appetites, and self-deification.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Beyond Agnosticism|last=Bell|first=Bernard Iddings|publisher=Harper & Brothers|year=1929|location=New York and London|pages=12–19}}</ref> Thus, if one attempted to be agnostic passively, he or she would incidentally join the worship of the world's gods. In ''Unfashionable Convictions'' (1931), he criticized the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]'s complete faith in human [[Sense|sensory perception]], augmented by scientific instruments, as a means of accurately grasping Reality. Firstly, it was fairly new, an innovation of the Western World, which [[Aristotle]] invented and [[Thomas Aquinas]] revived among the scientific community. Secondly, the divorce of "pure" science from human experience, as manifested in American [[Industrialisation|Industrialization]], had completely altered the environment, often disfiguring it, so as to suggest its insufficiency to human needs. Thirdly, because scientists were constantly producing more data—to the point where no single human could grasp it all at once—it followed that human intelligence was incapable of attaining a complete understanding of universe; therefore, to admit the mysteries of the unobserved universe was to be ''actually'' scientific. Bell believed that there were two other ways that humans could perceive and interact with the world. ''Artistic experience'' was how one expressed meaning through speaking, writing, painting, gesturing—any sort of communication which shared insight into a human's inner reality. ''Mystical experience'' was how one could "read" people and harmonize with them, being what we commonly call love.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Unfashionable Convictions|last=Bell|first=Bernard Iddings|publisher=Harper & Brothers|year=1931|location=New York and London|pages=4–5}}</ref> In summary, man was a scientist, artist, and lover. Without exercising all three, a person became "lopsided". Bell considered a [[Humanism|humanist]] to be a person who cannot rightly ignore the other ways of knowing. However, humanism, like agnosticism, was also temporal, and would eventually lead to either scientific [[materialism]] or [[theism]]. He lays out the following thesis: # Truth cannot be discovered by reasoning on the evidence of scientific data alone. Modern peoples' dissatisfaction with life is the result of depending on such incomplete data. Our ability to reason is not a way to discover Truth but rather a way to organize our knowledge and experiences somewhat sensibly. Without a full, human perception of the world, one's reason tends to lead them in the wrong direction. # Beyond what can be measured with scientific tools, there are other types of perception, such as one's ability know another human through loving. One's loves cannot be dissected and logged in a scientific journal, but we know them far better than we know the surface of the sun. They show us an indefinable reality that is nevertheless intimate and personal, and they reveal qualities lovelier and truer than detached facts can provide. # To be religious, in the Christian sense, is to live for the Whole of Reality (God) rather than for a small part (gods). Only by treating this Whole of Reality as a person—good and true and perfect—rather than an impersonal force, can we come closer to the Truth. An ultimate Person can be loved, but a cosmic force cannot. A scientist can only discover peripheral truths, but a lover is able to get at the Truth. # There are many reasons to believe in God but they are not sufficient for an agnostic to become a theist. It is not enough to believe in an ancient holy book, even though when it is accurately analyzed without bias, it proves to be more trustworthy and admirable than what we are taught in school. Neither is it enough to realize how probable it is that a personal God would have to show human beings how to live, considering they have so much trouble on their own. Nor is it enough to believe for the reason that, throughout history, millions of people have arrived at this Wholeness of Reality only through religious experience. The aforementioned reasons may warm one toward religion, but they fall short of convincing. However, if one presupposes that God is in fact a knowable, loving person, as an experiment, and then lives according that religion, he or she will suddenly come face to face with experiences previously unknown. One's life becomes full, meaningful, and fearless in the face of death. It does not defy reason but ''exceeds'' it. # Because God has been experienced through love, the orders of prayer, fellowship, and devotion now matter. They create order within one's life, continually renewing the "missing piece" that had previously felt lost. They empower one to be compassionate and humble, not small-minded or arrogant. # No truth should be denied outright, but all should be questioned. Science reveals an ever-growing vision of our universe that should not be discounted due to bias toward older understandings. Reason is to be trusted and cultivated. To believe in God is not to forego reason or to deny scientific facts, but to step into the unknown and discover the fullness of life.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unfashionable Convictions|last=Bell|first=Bernard Iddings|publisher=Harper & Brothers Publishing|year=1931|location=New York and London|pages=25–28}}</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