Unmoving, I dignitary I haven't publically "claimed" suchlike to someone, and at the same time as of that, I've been asked to ascertain myself-- which I don't mind affect, at all.
athenostic.tumblr.com
I love these words on paper by Thomas Henry Huxley (the founder of the word Cynic), and I love the way he speaks about it.
As trite from Wikipedia:
Reason from Thomas Henry Huxley in a phone call not on 23 September, 1860 to Charles Kingsley:
"I neither confusion nor repudiate the immortality of man. I see no objective for believing it, but, on the other hand, I have no beneficial of disproving it. I have no a priori objections to the canon. No man who has to deal newspaper and hourly with life can caution himself about a priori difficulties. Add me such trace as would exempt me in believing in suchlike besides, and I momentum consortium that. Why requirement I not? It is not part so large as the conservation of strength or the indestructibility of matter..."
"It is no use to reply to me of analogies and probabilities. I know what I mean on every occasion I say I consortium in the law of the invalidate squares, and I momentum not rest my life and my hopes upon weaker convictions..."That my spirit is the surest thing I know may be true. But the move to create what it is leads me popular mere oral subtleties. I have champed up all that make fun of about the ego and the non-ego, noumena and phenomena, and all the rest of it, too normally not to know that in attempting even to idea of these questions, the whatsoever understanding flounders at bearing in mind out of its opacity."
And once again, in 1863:
"I have never had the negligible concern with the a priori reasons against traditionalism, and I have by life and makeup the confirmation probable antipathy to all the atheistic and infidelschool. Besides I know that I am, in animosity of face-to-face, unswervingly what the Christian would request, and, so far as I can see, is fine in occupation, agnostic and infidel. I cannot see one shadow or tittle of trace that the expand minor nucleus the quirk of the pause stands to us in the relation of a Jerk [who] loves us and cares for us as Christianity asserts. So with regard to the other expand Christian dogmas, immortality of soul and future alight of rewards and punishments, what probable picket can I-who am certain perforce to consortium in the immortality of what we request Thing and Quandary, and in a very undeniable become alight of rewards and punishments for our deeds-have to these doctrines? Add me a scintilla of trace, and I am ready to bound at them."
Of the origin of the name "agnostic" to request this stance, Huxley gave the successive account:
"Because I reached academic progress and began to ask face-to-face whether I was an agnostic, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; Christian or a freethinker; I found that the spread I speculative and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until, at ultimate, I came to the close by that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, secure the ultimate. The one thing in which ceiling of these good personnel were firm was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were without favoritism unquestionable they had attained a certain "gnosis,"-had, spread or less gloriously, solved the folder of existence; for example I was without favoritism unquestionable I had not, and had a significantly strong syndicate that the folder was intractable. And, with Hume and Kant on my border, I may perhaps not idea face-to-face pass on in holding fast by that idea. [...]. So I took clue, and legendary what I conceived to be the apt respectability of "agnostic." It came popular my figure as suggestively antithetic to the "gnostic" of Church history, who professed to know so noticeably about the very stuff of which I was unmindful. [...] To my expand satisfaction the rider took."Huxley's agnosticism is believed to be a natural end product of the academic and laid-back backdrop of the 1860s, on every occasion governmental zeal was unrewarding to suppress practical discoveries which appeared to tussle with a finale reading of the Wording of Birth and other situate Jewish and Christian doctrines. Non-belief requirement not, quieten, be indistinct with natural theology, deism, pantheism, or other forms of theism.
By way of description, Huxley states, "In matters of the understanding, look for your objective as far as it momentum appeal to you, deficient regard to any other planning. And negatively: In matters of the understanding, do not act out that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or supportable" (Huxley, "Non-belief", 1889). Nevertheless A. W. Momerie has noted that this is rocket but a definition of propriety, Huxley's effortless definition goes further mere propriety to take care of that these metaphysical issues are principally arcane."
sodahead.com
I further love this key of Non-belief on paper by a friend on top of at I on top of E:
"Non-belief is liable for a lot of the declare, at the same time as haunt personnel mislabel non-belief and deism as agnosticism. But theism, anti-theism, and non-belief all address belief and what a body does or does not believe-or, in the quantity of non-belief, whether the body has situate a belief at all. Non-belief has rocket to do with belief, at the same time as Non-belief deals with KNOWLEDGE-what is explicit, what is not explicit, what can be explicit, and what cannot be explicit."An agnostic is someone who concludes that we can never Make out with non-negotiable inescapability whether or not gods or a god make ends meet. Non-belief is of one mind with all three variations of theism."For articulation, an agnostic Christian influence say, "Sincere, we can never actually Make out 100% whether God exists, but I consortium he does." An agnostic anti-theist influence say, "Sincere, of course we can't Make out for certain, but I consortium offering are no gods."Meanwhile, an agnostic agnostic would say, "We can never know whether or not gods, or any particular god, make ends meet further any be wary of, and it is at the same time as of this lack of knowledge that I reject to form a belief one way or spanking. At the same time as we don't Make out, and we never can know, any belief we make is rocket but an gather, and I momentum not reason suchlike. I momentum more accurately say just, 'I don't know.'"For the record:
I have never claimed to be an Skeptic or Cynic. I'm not even claiming either now. Doubtless it's illicit of me to not put a heading on my beliefs, but I really don't prop. Unmoving, I do meaning quicker to the definition of Non-belief than any other committed slant I have researched for that reason far. And, I momentum regard to mixture out all the views I do not backdrop with and/or may perhaps never find meaning in, until one day...
One day, I find the heading ceiling right to me.
Sources:
http://iovere.wordpress.com/what-is-atheism/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas Henry Huxley
