by kamran

Created on: May 21, 2007   Last Updated: May 22, 2007

I think proper understanding of the definitions will clear the difference.

Atheism:
1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God [ant: theism]
2. a lack of belief in the existence of God or gods [1]

Agnosticism:
1. An intellectual doctrine or attitude affirming the uncertainty of all claims to ultimate knowledge. [2]

2. A religious orientation of doubt; a denial of ultimate knowledge of the existence of God; "agnosticism holds that you can neither prove nor disprove God's existence" [3]

3. The disbelief in any claims of ultimate knowledge [3]

4. A denial of knowledge about whether there is or is not a God. An agnostic insists that it is impossible to prove that there is no God and impossible to prove that there is one. [4]

It is clear from the definitions that Atheism is about "belief" or lack thereof about the existence of a deity, GOD or gods while Agnosticism is about "not knowing" whether GOD or gods exist or not.

It is important to note that both Theism and Atheism are defined under the umberella of belief while gnosticism and agnosticism are defined under the umbrella of Knowledge. Gnostics value the revealed knowledge while agnostics accept the lack of knowledge, thus both theists and atheists can be agnostics, i.e. Atheism and Agnosticism can overlap each other as can the Theism and Agnosticism.

A person who believes in non-existence of GOD is an explicit atheist. One who has a disbelief in GOD with either the possibility of God's existence or impossibility of knowing for sure if God really doesn't exist is an agnostic atheist. Similarly a person who believes in existence of GOD is an explicit Theist and the one who believes in GOD with either the possibility of his non-existence or impossibility of knowing for sure if GOD really exists is an agnostic theist. Thus we can say that on a scale Theists and Atheists take the ends (they only make up a minority on bith sides) while agnostics are in between on the same scale.

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References:

1. atheism. (n.d.). WordNet 3.0. Retrieved May 21, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/atheism
2. agnosticism. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved May 21, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/agnosticism
3. agnosticism. (n.d.). WordNet 3.0. Retrieved May 21, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/agnosticism
4. agnosticism. (n.d.). The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Retrieved May 21, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/agnosticism

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