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Agnostic theism

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Agnostic theism is the philosophical view that encompasses both theism and agnosticism. An agnostic theist is one who views that the truth value of certain claims, in particular the existence of god(s) is unknown or inherently unknowable but chooses to believe in God(s) in spite of this. There are contrasting views of the term.

Views of agnostic theism

Many views exist depending on how theism, agnosticism, belief, and knowledge are defined.

Theism as belief in God or gods, agnosticism as don't/can't know

  • Theism is the belief that gods or deities exist, while agnosticism is the belief that the existence of gods are unknown or inherently unknowable. Belief is defined as a conviction of the truth of a proposition without necessarily any proof. Agnosticism does not violate this, and this definition of theism does not violate agnosticism, implying that it is possible to be both theist and agnostic.

The classical philosophical understanding of knowledge is that knowledge is justified true belief. By this definition, it is reasonable to assert that one may hold a belief, and that belief may be true, without asserting that one knows it. Agnostic theism could be interpreted as an admission that it is not possible to justify one's belief in God or gods sufficiently for it to be considered known.

  • According to fideism this logic statement was used:

* Christian theology teaches that people are saved by faith in the Christian God (i.e. trust in the empirically unprovable).
* But, if the Christian God's existence can be proven, either empirically or logically, to that extent faith becomes unnecessary or irrelevant.
* Therefore, if Christian theology is true, no immediate proof of the Christian God's existence is possible.
see also Sola fide

Theism as belief, Agnosticism as doubt of god(s)

A position that would qualify as agnostic theist, would be in a temporary state of doubt. In short, a theist becomes an agnostic theist when they lose their confidence in the existence of a divinity to some degree but still choose to believe in it. Theists may admit that they experience such doubts that they do not wish to question, in which case they become an agnostic theist. If they experience something that assures them of the existence of some form of divinity, then they will no longer qualify as agnostic theists.

Problems and criticism

One criticism of agnostic theism is that in order to be religious, you must believe in God, whether or not you have proof. If you acknowledge you don't have proof, but you still believe in God, this is consistent with fideism. If you acknowledge you don't have proof, and you let that knowledge affect your belief, some may say that you cannot really consider yourself religious. However, this presupposes that agnostic theists consider themselves religious, which most do not.

Support

Agnosticism states the inability to prove or disprove the existence of a deity. Theism is the belief in God. It can be said that an agnostic theist has no way of proving or disproving God but has a "feeling" that He does exist. An Agnostic theist has Faith in God. Many agnostic theists are either on and off believers or lightly religious people who have an extra dimension of spirituality. An example of an agnostic theist argument is as follows: either God created the universe and always existed, or the universe always existed, leaving both scenarios equally possible since one had to be there from the beginning. He or she goes on to state his faith and personal experiences and logic or faith; for example, can life exist from nothing?

See also

References

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