What is an Agnostic?

I may as well start from the beginning by saying that I intend to ramble. Not just ramble, but to verbally (typographically???) travel many places, most of them seemingly unrelated.

But today I will start simply, asking the question, "What is an Agnostic?"

Atheists and Believers (Theists) often think of an agnostic as a weak version of an Atheist, or someone who sits on the fence unable to decide. But the Atheist and the Theist argue the question "IS there a God?" and the Theist will answer, "Yes, of course!" and the Atheist will answer "NO, how could there be a God?"

Richard Dawkins makes this point in his book, "The God Delusion," where he even goes so far to suggest that a completely impartial agnostic would say there is a 50% chance that there is a God, and a 50% chance that there is not a God. This is a very odd position, to say the least, to let two other groups define your own beliefs. [To be fair, he does explain that permanent agnostic would argue that they don't belong on this range - I will post more about his list in a later post.]

No, Agnostics argue a different question entirely. Their question is based in the root of their name, "gnosis" the Greek word for knowledge. Agnostics argue the question, "CAN we know if there is a God?" To which they reply, "No, we cannot."

What's exciting to me is that there is another group that takes up the argument (for, how can you have an argument with only one group?). Throughout history in many places and in many ways there has always been a group, usually referred to as the mystics who contend that there is a way to Know there is a God. They are the Masons, Gnostics, the Sufi's, the Kaballahists, and many, many others. Even poets, mad men (and women), and spiritual teachers.

So, just as Richard Dawkins posits his range of 7 steps to "guide" us in the (mis)understanding the various kinds of Theists and Atheists; this blog will be an exploration of the other question, "Can we KNOW, if there is a God?" and the range of answers between "Yes" and "No."