• What is agnosticism?
• Origin of the term "agnosticism"
• Difference between agnosticism and atheism
• Famous agnostics

We explain what agnosticism is, its history and differences with atheism. In addition, some exponents of this position.

Thomas Henry Huxley proposed agnosticism as a position close to empiricism.

What is agnosticism?

Agnosticism is a philosophical position that maintains the impossibility of human being to know the nature and existence of God. Furthermore, this position implies that human beings and humanity cannot know or decipher certain transcendental questions, both religious and metaphysical.

The term arose in England in 1869, from the hand of the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, to give name to a doctrine which holds that human beings are limited to knowing only what they can experience and know through the senses.

The word agnostic comes from the union of the Greek words to- ("Without") and gnosthos ("knowledge"). Today it is commonly used as synonymous of “skeptic” (one who distrusts ideas and beliefs) with regard to mystical and religious matters and, especially, what traditional Christian doctrine proclaims.

Origin of the term "agnosticism"

The ideas that agnosticism supports come from or are related to currents or positions that have emerged throughout history, such as the skepticism and then him existentialism.

The term "agnosticism" was coined in 1869, at a meeting of the London Metaphysical Society. The English Darwinian biologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) proposed it as a name for his own philosophical position. Thus was formally founded a tradition whose antecedents can be found in the ancient history of humanity, with exponents such as the Indian ascetic Sanyaia Belatthaputta (5th century BC) or the Greek philosopher Protagoras (481 BC - 411 BC).

Huxley proposed agnosticism as a research method, rather than a creed or religious position. Every agnostic, according to him, should allow himself to be guided by his reason "as far as it takes him" and at the same time not pretend "that the conclusions that have not been demonstrated or are not demonstrable ”.

In that sense, Huxley's stance was close to rationalism and to empiricism that governed the philosophical thought of the time.

Difference between agnosticism and atheism

Although agnosticism is considered a position contrary to religious creed, especially Christian and Catholic, it should not be confused with atheism.

Atheism consists of the denial of theism, that is, it is a philosophical doctrine that denies the existence of a God or any type of divinity and rejects any mystical or religious position. On the other hand, agnosticism escapes the question about the existence of God because it maintains that such transcendental reasons or truths are unknowable for the human being.

In any case, there is an atheistic agnosticism that maintains that the existence of God is unprovable by humanity, which is equivalent to saying that God does not exist. On the other hand, there is a religious agnosticism that maintains that the existence of God is unprovable by humanity, but that does not mean that it does not exist.

Famous agnostics

Carl Sagan was an agnostic scientist famous for his work as a popularizer.

Some of the most famous defenders of agnosticism were:

• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). He was an English philosopher and economist and one of the main exponents of the liberalism and of utilitarianism. In addition, he defended the idea of ​​knowing the world through experience.
• Charles Darwin (1809-1882). He was an English naturalist, famous for having proposed the theory of the origin of the species by evolution, as a consequence of the natural selection.
• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). He was an English naturalist and thinker who excelled in the sociology and was one of the developers of the organic theory of society, which compared society to a biological organism. His agnosticism was based on the idea of ​​the unknowable.
• Marie Curie (1867-1934). She was a Polish scientist who made advances in the study of radioactivity with the discovery of radium and polonium (chemical elements). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 and in chemistry in 1911.
• Carl Sagan (1934-1996). He was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, and popularizer. He was one of the main enthusiasts of the SETI extraterrestrial search project and a distinguished educator in science.