Agnosticism

===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}}
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