Where did agnostics come from?
The first scientific use of the word "agnostic" appeared in 1869. It was introduced into circulation by the English zoologist and supporter of Darwin's theory - Thomas Huxley (Huxley) .
The word "agnosticism" comes from the Greek word for " unknowable ".
Thomas Huxley introduced the word “agnostic” into circulation
. He began to question his views and came to the conclusion that none of the existing definitions suited , since he could not fully call himself an atheist, a materialist, or an idealist, nor a pantheist.
He defined himself as a free-thinking person. This is what he saw as the essence of agnosticism.
An agnostic does not deny the existence of gods, but does not believe in them until he receives evidence.
Do you believe in God?
Examples of agnosticism
In religion
Agnostics do not belong to any religion , since each of them gives its own dogmatic definition about the beginning of things and the origin of all things, about the creation of the world. Agnostics say that it is impossible to verify these statements , so they do not believe in them.
They allow the possibility of belief in the very idea of the existence of God, but not belief in a specific object.
In philosophy
Agnosticism came to philosophy in the 19th century. Adherents of a separate movement of philosophy - positivism, tried to cleanse science of false misconceptions and build a solid structure based solely on knowledge.
Positivists understood and accepted the point of view that the existence of God does not have sufficient evidence because it cannot be verified in practice. But they did not deny its very existence, so they could not fully call themselves atheists. They chose the path of searching for facts to confirm religious dogmas.
In science
Agnosticism in science states that any experience gained in the course of cognition will inevitably be distorted by the consciousness of the subject. Agnostics are convinced that the subject does not have a single chance to objectively comprehend the surrounding reality and an accurate picture of the world.
Simply put, any experience gained by a person inevitably passes through the prism of his knowledge, judgments and prejudices. Each person's experience and thinking are unique and, to varying degrees, far from understanding the true picture of the world. Therefore, any knowledge is not accurate. At the same time, the possibility of the process of cognition itself is not denied.
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Agnostics don't believe in God?
Belief in God fundamentally distinguishes agnostics from atheists. Atheists claim that no gods exist, although there is no evidence of their non-existence.
Agnostics accept the existence of God , but do not believe in a specific religion. They do not deny the existence of anything that cannot be proven.
What is the difference between an agnostic and an ignostic
Agnostics boldly talk about God , the origin of the world and the impossibility of proving these phenomena. Ignostics, on the other hand, believe that agnostics make too many assumptions in religion without justifying them.
Simply put, Ignostics cannot argue about proving the existence of God, because there is no single precise definition of what (who) God is.
Agnostics say they don't know if God exists. Ignostics say that they do not understand what they are talking about when they begin to speculate about the existence or non-existence of God.
Atheism in assortment
Anti-religious poster
Why don't some people believe in God? Really? Why? Every Orthodox Christian sooner or later encounters unbelievers. And if these people mean something to him, he tries to understand the roots of their disbelief. The roots are different. Let's try to trace them together.
Residual atheism
Atheism in the form of a residual phenomenon is quite common among us. So to speak, a legacy of Soviet times. This type of godlessness is characteristic of the older generation, who were taught from school: “Science has proven that there is no God.” Universities taught “scientific atheism.” Doctoral dissertations were defended on atheism and professorial titles were awarded.
The entire huge educational system worked for state atheism. And the results were consistent. In order to escape from the field of attraction of “scientific atheism”, a Soviet person was required not just intelligence and erudition, but much more - unbending independence of thinking. After all, people were constantly told: “Religion is the lot of backward people. An educated person is ashamed to believe in God.” Some, out of inertia, believe so.
The venerable scientist spoke about faith in God at the level of pioneer chants and anti-religious posters
I remember a public atheist speech by one academician. It was specific; the venerable physicist spoke about the church’s faith in God at the level of primitive pioneer chants and anti-religious propaganda posters. The words of the gray-haired scientist reeked of childish helplessness in the face of the grandiose machine of state atheism. He was never able to move forward in his understanding of religious problems from the junior high school level.
Atheism renamed
Not everyone is ready to profess Soviet atheism in its purest form. Some middle-aged people understand that this worldview has lost its relevance and needs to be revised. The name is also under revision. Instead of the old-fashioned: “I am an atheist,” they now say in a new way: “I am a skeptic.” Or in another version: “I am an agnostic.” What is the difference between an atheist, a skeptic and an agnostic? An atheist is convinced that there is no God. A skeptic, as he should be, is skeptical of any belief in God. An agnostic believes that it is impossible to rationally justify belief in God. Judge for yourself how fundamental the difference is.
It’s easy for a skeptic and an agnostic to live: doubting something is always easier than defending something
It is easy for a skeptic and an agnostic to live: doubting something is always easier than defending or proving something. The main thing is that skeptics are not asked to justify their skeptical attitude towards everything in the world except their beloved all-pervasive skepticism. Post-Soviet skeptics have already written off Marxist-Leninist philosophy as unnecessary. They have new authorities (although there should be no authorities for skeptics). They discuss the ideas of Richard Dawkins, speak out about genes, memes, and the illusory nature of Christian beliefs.
Anti-religious poster
Oppositional atheism
The desire to “be different” usually awakens in adolescence. For many, it retains its remarkable strength for a long time, constantly changes, and finds new points of application. It is not so rare to find atheism out of a desire to feel in opposition, in a select minority, to recognize oneself as an elite.
This type of atheism was clearly visible in the late 1980s, when a religious revival began in our country and many came to the Church. Then the opposition atheists consoled themselves with the thought that the “fashion for religion” would soon pass. Now we can sum this up and say: “Of course, all fashion is fleeting. But your desire to be in opposition is not stable, justified or deep. I know those who laughed at the “fashion for Orthodoxy” in the late 80s, began going to church in the 90s, and now tell everyone they know about how Orthodoxy disappointed them. I also know those who started with superficial fashion and gradually came to serious religious convictions, to conscious deep faith.”
You cannot build any fundamental understanding of our life by protesting against the “mood of the majority.”
Semi-religious atheism
This type of godlessness recognizes some positive role for religion in public and personal life. Some atheists agree that church prayers, the Sacraments of confession and weddings help a person. How do they help? With their help, a person maintains calm in a difficult life situation, establishes a prosperous family life, overcomes psychological problems, and takes his responsibilities more responsibly.
Atheists can also notice the positive contribution of the Church to cultural life. Such atheists attend church services and then share with satisfaction: “Icon painting and sacred music have a calming effect on a person. Art elevates us above all vanity. This is wonderful. I say this openly, even though I am an atheist.”
Semi-religious atheism is a curious subject for separate study. This half-heartedness and iridescence of semi-religious atheism can take on the most bizarre forms. In the West, “atheist churches” have been appearing for decades, where you can come to Sunday meetings. They practice their own sermons (about humanistic ideals), their own counseling (psychotherapy), their own quasi-religious rituals and charity. In general, their life is somewhat similar to the everyday life and holidays of a Christian parish. Only without God.
Perhaps similar “post-Christian” communities will spread among us from “burnt out”, lost faith, disillusioned enthusiasts... For a religious scholar, this is an interesting subject: “virtual churches” for “virtual people” who are either atheists or not.
Atheism is forced
This refers to those cases when a person is burning from the inside with pain: “I would be glad to believe in God, but I can’t.” He wants to believe, but he “has nothing to believe in.” This variety of atheism is close to the previous variety, and yet differs from it. Forced atheism presupposes a much greater internal integrity of a person, adherence to principles and the internal conflict associated with it: “I sincerely want to believe in God, but I have no right.” In this case, conversations with a believer can have an impact if the interlocutors have enough mutual respect, awareness and the ability to reason consistently to conduct such a difficult dialogue. The Orthodox Church has a rich historical experience in apologetics.
Sometimes a person who is forced to consider himself an unbeliever is just one step away from living faith
Finally, we note that a person who is forced to consider himself an unbeliever is sometimes only one step away from living faith. Remember the voice from the Gospel: “I believe, Lord! help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). And the Lord helped the unbeliever.
Famous agnostics
Immanuel Kant
- German philosopher, founder of German classical philosophy. With his work “General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens” he made an attempt to explain historically the origin of the Solar System. This gave rise to the scientific basis for the origin of the universe.
David Hume
Scottish philosopher, one of the most prominent representatives of the Scottish Enlightenment. Also one of the founders of the theory of agnosticism. Consistently presented his ideas in his teachings.
Charles Darwin
English naturalist and one of the first researchers of human origins. Introduced the concept of natural and sexual selection. Initially, he was a deeply religious Christian, but a tragic event in his life made him doubt his faith and join the ranks of agnostics. Many called him an atheist, but he himself categorically denied this.
Bertrand Russell
British philosopher, mathematician, logician and public figure. Representative of the school of analytical philosophy. His most significant ideas are Russell's paradox, logical atomism and the theory of descriptions. In a 1953 television interview, he gave exhaustive answers to views on what agnosticism is, differences from atheism, and the main views of agnostics on religion.
Albert Einstein
German theoretical physicist, one of the founders of modern physics theory and humanist. He called himself an agnostic and denied claims that he was an atheist. He believed in the “pantheistic” god of Benedict Spinoza, but denied the existence of God as a specific being that can be correlated with a specific person.
Aldous Huxley
English writer, philosopher, author of one of the most famous dystopias “Brave New World”. Grandson of the founder of agnosticism, Thomas Huxley. In his scientific searches, he was widely interested in spiritual issues, including philosophical mysticism and parapsychology.
Carl Sagan
American astrophysicist, astronomer and major popularizer of science. He was one of the first to study exobiology, that is, the origin of evolution and the existence of life on other planets. Sagan was an agnostic and did not claim that life exists on other planets, although he was closely involved in studying this issue. He proposed not to draw conclusions before sufficient grounds for them are obtained.
Neil Tyson
American Ph.D. in physics, astrophysicist, science popularizer and writer. Since 1996, he has served as director of the planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. He was a supporter of the idea that Pluto is not a planet, since its characteristics did not fit the description of the other planets. His views caused a lot of indignation among ordinary citizens, including children.
Steve Jobs
American entrepreneur and inventor, co-founder and former director of Apple and Pixar. Since 1973, he began to profess Buddhism and criticized the ideas of Christianity. Buddhism, unlike many other religions, does not provide a precise definition of God. He called not to blindly follow the dogmas that other people came up with, but to live your own life.
Egor Gaidar Russian statesman, politician, economist and Doctor of Economics. He was one of the leaders of economic reforms in the early 1990s. He called himself an agnostic. His statement became widely known because of the context. He was at the next election meeting in the Russian outback and told pensioners about the delights of a market economy. The local residents understood little and one of them decided to clarify his faith in God. To which Gaidar answered: “You see, I’m an agnostic.”
According to a recent study, the group of people without any faith is the third largest in the world, behind Christians and Muslims and ahead of Hindus.
The study, based on data from 2010, also found that religions such as Islam and Hinduism are likely to become even more widespread in the future, while Judaism has little prospect of increasing its adherents. As the study showed, Christianity is distributed most evenly in the world, its representatives can be found in all parts of the planet, but Hindus live more compactly than others, and 94% of representatives of this faith live in one country - India.
Overall, 84% of the world's 6.9 billion people are considered to be believers. The category of “non-religious” includes those people who do not profess any religion - from atheists and agnostics, to those who have spiritual beliefs but do not affiliate themselves with any traditional faith.
As the article emphasizes, “many of the “undecided” people who do not identify themselves with a particular religion, in fact, still have spiritual or religious beliefs. The authors of the article further write: “Some adults who do not identify themselves with a particular religion share a belief in God or some kind of higher power; in China there are 7%, in France – 30%, and in the USA – 68%.”
Forum participant and demographic specialist Conrad Hackett claims that the study used census data from 2,500 families, survey results and information from population registers. However, these materials were not enough to carry out a more detailed classification of religious views and more accurately determine the number of atheists and agnostics.
“Such information cannot be obtained for every country,” he says, “the census taker usually asks about what religion a person professes, so you can only find out the number of people belonging to a certain religion and the number of non-believers.
“Data adjusted for age indicate that among Muslims the minimum average age is 23 years, and for the rest of the world's population it reaches 28 years. The average age indicator indicates the demographic priority of youth at a time when half of the population is older and the other half is younger than this age.
The share of Muslims in the global population will grow, and an important factor in this is precisely this age composition with a predominance of the population of young people,” says Hackett. In contrast, Judaism, which has 14 million adherents or 0.2% of the world's population, has a maximum average age of 36 years, meaning that the prospects for growth in the faith's membership are minimal.
According to Hackett, Israel, which contains 40.5% of the world's Jewish population, has a younger age composition than the United States, which is home to 41.1% of all the world's Jews.
Research has shown that globally, the average age of Christians is 30 years, and that of Hindus is 26 years. The average age of people of “uncertain religious views” is 34 years, which significantly reduces the prospects for growth of their number on the planet.
According to the study, the largest number of believers on earth profess Christianity, their number is 2.2 billion people or 31.5% of the planet's population. 50% of them belong to the Roman Catholic faith, 37% are Protestants, including Anglicans and representatives of other minor Christian movements, and 12% are Orthodox Christians.
There are 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, representing 23% of the world's population. As the article states, “the vast majority (87-90%) are Sunni and about 10-13% are Shia.” Among the 1.1 billion people on the planet with “unspecified religious beliefs,” about 62% live in only one, China, which is 52.2% of that country’s population.
The second country in the world in which the majority of the population is made up of people who do not identify themselves with any traditional religion is Japan - 72 million “undecided” people live here, or 57% of the country’s population. Behind them on the list is the United States of America - in this country the number of people who do not identify themselves with a particular religion is 16.4%.
All the Hindus of the world live mainly in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Half of all Buddhists on the planet are concentrated in China, with Thailand and Japan lagging far behind, where 13.2% and 9.4% of all Buddha's followers living on the planet live, respectively.
According to the study, about 405 million people, or about 6% of the world's population, are adherents of traditional folk religions such as those practiced by African and Chinese tribes, as well as American Indians and Australian Aborigines.
Another 58 million people, almost 1% of the world's population, practice “other religions,” including Baha'iism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism, Tenri-kyo, Wicca and Zoroastrianism. Adherents of most of these beliefs live in countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.
