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I am an agnostic atheist. (Actually, I am an agnostic secular humanist mentalist care-ethicist evidentialist atheist, but that level of specificity is helpful only to the philosopher.)

Yes, that's right; I am agnostic, and I am atheist; indeed, I would contend that 90% of atheists and 90% of agnostics on the face of this planet, whatever their pretensions and self-identifications, are the same way.

Why? Look at the definitions.

"Agnostic" means simply that one does not believe that the answers to the ultimate questions of the universe can be known to absolute and perfect certainty; this is so blatantly obvious to anyone with half an open mind that it should go without saying.

"Atheist" means simply that one does not believe that the answers to the ultimate questions of the universe are those found in religion: namely, gods, rituals, prayers, faith, and the like. This isn't as obvious as the above, but it follows quite naturally from a skeptical and scientific analysis of the world.

Why do people think these two positions are incompatible? I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with a belief that "the answers are ultimately uncertain" implies "we should just give up now." This seems a common enough belief, but it's simply not true. Any good scientist knows that the answers are ultimately uncertain, but she would never just give up on that account: she knows that the effort, the development of better and better theories-none perfect, but each superior to the last-has brought immense amounts of good to the world in the form of knowledge, understanding, medicine, and technology.

Why should theology be so different? Why can't we freely admit that we'll never really know for sure, but nonetheless try as hard as we can to get the best answers available to us?

I say we can; indeed, I do.

Learn more about this author, Patrick Julius.
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