Definition of Agnostic
What is agnostic definition?
The English biologist Thomas Huxley coined the word agnostic. Below are quotes from Huxley on agnosticism.
“Agnosticism is not a creed but a method, the essence of which lies in the vigorous application of a single principle …Positively the principle may be expressed as in matters of intellect, do not pretend conclusions are certain that are not demonstrated or demonstrable.” 1
“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,”–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.
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.” 2
Famous agnostic Bertrand Russell wrote what he thought of the agnostic definition in his 1959 essay What is an Agnostic?
“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.” 3
Agnostic meaning from dictionaries:
Merriam Webster - “a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly : one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god” 4
Oxford – “a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.” 5
The Skeptic’s Dictionary – “Agnosticism is the position of believing that knowledge of the existence or non-existence of god is impossible.” 6
Richard Dawkins uses Bertrand Russell’s Teapot analogy to explain why he is an atheist and not an agnostic.
Sources
1 http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutagnosticism/a/huxley.htm
2 http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/CE5/Agn.html
3 http://www.atheistempire.com/mm_dl/text/Russell,%20Bertrand%20-%20What%20is%20an%20Agnostic.pdf
4 http://www.merriam-webster.com
5 http://oxforddictionaries.com/?attempted=true
6 http://www.skepdic.com