What is your definition of this?

by HadEnuf 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  HadEnuf

  Agnosticism: "The doctrine and philosophical theory that man cannot know God, first truths, or anything beyond material phenomena".--Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary

  I had always thought that an Agnostic was someone who just didn't KNOW if there was a God, etc. I don't like the above definition though, because though I feel like a rather "spiritual" person, I still feel like I am not sure what really is out there concerning God, religion, the afterlife, etc...BUT, the above definition just makes an Agnostic look like someone who is just plain ignorant and has no hope of anything. I still have hope that there COULD be something out there, like a God or something of that sort. Arghhhhhhhhhhh....... So what does that make me?

  Just the ramblings from an empty head...Cathy L.
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  Big Dog

  Cathy, I kind of read the definition a little different. It seems to be saying to me that man does not have the capacity to fully know God or first truths or spiritual phenoms. I read it like our physicality and limitations there of keep us from not from knowing God but being able to fully know him. Like the scripture I think that says that no man can look upon God and live. It is saying our humanness limits us in being able to FULLY know God.
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  under74

  I don't think I totally agree with the meaning you got from Wagnalls either.
  
  I got this off dictionary.com
  
  One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
  One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.
  One who is doubtful or noncommittal about something.
  
  adj.
  Relating to or being an agnostic.
  Doubtful or noncommittal: ?Though I am agnostic on what terms to use, I have no doubt that human infants come with an enormous ?acquisitiveness? for discovering patterns? (William H. Calvin).
  
  An agnostic does not deny the existence of God and heaven but holds that one cannot know for certain whether or not they exist. The term agnostic was fittingly coined by the 19th-century British scientist Thomas H. Huxley, who believed that only material phenomena were objects of exact knowledge. He made up the word from the prefix a-, meaning ?without, not,? as in amoral, and the noun Gnostic. Gnostic is related to the Greek word gn sis, ?knowledge,? which was used by early Christian writers to mean ?higher, esoteric knowledge of spiritual things? hence, Gnostic referred to those with such knowledge. In coining the term agnostic, Huxley was considering as ?Gnostics? a group of his fellow intellectuals ?ists,? as he called them who had eagerly embraced various doctrines or theories that explained the world to their satisfaction. Because he was a ?man without a rag of a label to cover himself with,? Huxley coined the term agnostic for himself, its first published use being in 1870.
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  blondie

  An agnostic is a person who feels that God's existence can neither be proved
  nor disproved, on the basis of current evidence.

  Cute picture, Cathy!

  Blondie
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  BrendaCloutier

  I agree with Big Dog. I have become agnostic because it opens up and allows for the limitations of the human condition as to what/who god is. It allows for expansion of ideas and opinions beyond the Bible or other "sacred" writings or understandings.

  Yes, I believe in God, omnipotent, and maybe even omnipresent. I do not believe in God the "devine" requiring worship. My definition of God for years has been She He It They.
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  HadEnuf

  One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
  One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.
  One who is doubtful or noncommittal about something.

  Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Me thinks I am need of a new dictionary!

  You people are just so smart!!

  Cathy L.

  P.S. Thanks Blondie about the pic. My son took that and thinks it sums up my personality...whatever the heck THAT means (and I don't think it's a good thing)!
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  LittleToe

  I agree with the definition that most here seem to be presenting. However the word itself probably is supposed to mean what that dictionary defines it as.

  When you parse it down it's a-gnosticism.

  Gnosticism