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what is atheism?
what is agnosticism?
questions about atheism
Question:
If atheism is just disbelief in gods, then what is the difference between that and agnosticism?

Response:
Many people who adopt the label of agnostic reject the label of atheist there is a common
perception that agnosticism is a more reasonable position while atheism is more dogmatic,
ultimately indistinguishable from theism except in the details !his is not a "alid position to adopt
because it misrepresents or misunderstands e"erything in"ol"ed: atheism, theism, agnosticism, and
the nature of belief itself #t also happens to reinforce popular prejudice against atheists

Prejudice Against Atheism, Atheists
$gnostics may sincerely belie"e it and theists may sincerely reinforce it, but it relies upon more
than one misunderstanding about both atheism and agnosticism !hese misunderstandings are only
exacerbated by continual social pressure and prejudice against atheism and atheists %eople who are
unafraid of stating that they indeed do not belie"e in any gods are still despised in many places,
whereas agnostic is percei"ed as more respectable
$theists are thought to be closed&minded because they deny the existence of gods, whereas
agnostics appear to be open&minded because they do not 'now for sure !his is a mista'e because
atheists do not necessarily deny any gods and may indeed be an atheist because they do not 'now
for sure in other words, they may be an agnostic as well

Agnostic Atheism & Agnostic Theism
(nce it is understood that atheism is merely the absence of belief in any gods, it becomes e"ident
that agnosticism is not, as many assume, a third way between atheism and theism !he presence
of a belief in a god and the absence of a belief in a god exhaust all of the possibilities $gnosticism
is not about belief in god but about knowledge it was coined originally to describe the position
of a person who could not claim to 'now for sure if any gods exist or not
!hus, it is clear that agnosticism is compatible with both theism and atheism $ person can belie"e
in a god )theism* without claiming to 'now for sure if that god exists+ the result is agnostic theism
(n the other hand, a person can disbelie"e in gods )atheism* without claiming to 'now for sure that
no gods can or do exist+ the result is agnostic atheism
#t is also worth noting that there is a "icious double standard in"ol"ed when theists claim that
agnosticism is better than atheism because it is less dogmatic #f atheists are closed&minded
because they are not agnostic, then so are theists (n the other hand, if theism can be open&minded
then so can atheism
#n the end, the fact of the matter is a person isn,t faced with the necessity of only being either an
atheist or an agnostic -uite the contrary, not only can a person be both, but it is in fact common for
people to be both agnostics and atheists $n agnostic atheist won,t claim to 'now for sure that
nothing warranting the label god exists or that such cannot exist, but they also don,t acti"ely
belie"e that such an entity does indeed exist