Rath said:
Argh, said I wouldn't reply but really wanted to address this quote: "Agnostic’ is more contextual than is ‘atheist’, as it can be used in a non-theological way, as when a cosmologist might say that she is agnostic about string theory, neither believing nor disbelieving it." This is the meaning in non-philosophical terms. The term, confusingly, means something different in that context (which is what the quote is pointing out). In the context of religion however, it means the belief that man cannot know whether or not God exists. |
That's not the case according to your other link. They clearly tie this conception of agnosticism to philosophy. My main point was that you're trying to provide evidence for a certain definition that is supposedly right, and then cite evidence that uses different definitions......which is kind of problematic.
"(2) Agnosticism, as a general term in philosophy, is frequently employed to express any conscious attitude of doubt, denial, or disbelief, towards some, or even all, of man's powers of knowing or objects of knowledge."
I don't know if you saw my edit to one of my previous posts, but my experience is that philosophers usually use agnostic in this sense.....probably to make discussion easier. Its also a definition you provided in your first post about the dictionary. I'll just leave it at that, and say, people (philosophers included) seem to use the word however they please.....probably out of laziness and inattention more than anything else.
