Before we discuss the word "agnostic" -- perhaps it would be beneficial to discuss the word "believe", and its various forms, first.
I often ask people who talk about "believe" or "belief" or "believing in..." to explain what they mean without using the word "believe" in any of its forms.
The word means different things to different people -- so it becomes difficult to understand for sure what a user of the word means.
The main ingredient in the word "belief" or "believe", nearly as I can tell, is an acknowledgement that the person doing the "believing" does not KNOW the thing he/she is claiming to "believe."
Said again: If a person says -- I "believe...such and such"....the person acknowledges that the "such and such" is an unknown.
When the person using the word is talking about a god (as in "I believe in God") -- it is my contention that the person is trying to disguise the fact that they are talking about an unknown. I think they are making a guess (that a God exists) and trying to disguise the fact that they are making a guess by using that word.
Obviously, most theists do not want to say, "My guess is that there is a God!" So they hide the fact that they actually are saying that by saying, "I believe in God."
If you try to discuss this facet of their wording with them, they tend to get upset.
"You don't understand! I BELIEVE in God! I FIRMLY BELIEVE in God."
And of course, being a nice guy, I agree with them. "Yep, you do guess there is a God. You firmly guess their is a God. I understand."
Jeez! They have almost no sense of humor in those instances.
Atheists sometimes get that way also.
They say, "I believe there are no gods" -- or "I disbelieve (!) in God."
And the nice guy in me agrees with them. "Yep, your guess is that there are no gods."
"Oh, but I FIRMLY BELIEVE there are no gods."
"Yep, you FIRMLY guess there are no gods."
You asked me earlier what I beleive.
As I told you, I don't do that "believing" stuff.
I do not attempt to disguise the fact that occasionally I make guesses.
On those occasions where I consider it appropriate to make a guess (or estimate) about an unknown -- I clearly label it a guess or estimate.
I do not go about "believing" things -- because I consider use of that word to be a cop-out.
And now you are asking:
Quote:Am I just slow on the pick up of what you mean. I understood Agnostic meant "is unsure if a God exists or not". You use the term Agnostic but your definition and usage seem to imply "is unsure if anything exists and therefore can be believed".
Well...essentially, you are asking me: Can you guess about anything?
And my answer would be: Yes, I can. I can guess if the guy who just raised me 800 chips is bluffing or not (I guessed he was, but he wasn't, which is the reason I am back here so soon) -- and I can guess about who will win the next presidential election (I was wrong last time I guessed about that, or at least, our Supreme Court says I was wrong)...
...and I can guess about whether or not there is a God. (Lemme digress for a second and do that: Let's see...heads there is a God; tails there are no gods. HEADS! I guess there is a God!)
I guess(!) I can also guess if the scientists are correct that EVERYTHING came into existence when NOTHING (with a propensity to become something) Big Banged and "this" was formed. (Lemme digress again and do that: Heads EVERYTHING began with the Big Bang; tails, the scientists are way, way off base. HEADS AGAIN! I guess the scientists are right.)
So...for the moment, we are in complete agreement, G.
I hope this little exercise put you into better touch with where I am -- and where I'm coming from.