Debunking Agnosticism – Why Most Self-Identified Agnostics Are Anything But
Debunking Agnosticism – Why Most Self-Identified Agnostics Are Anything But
Written by Rev. Robert A. Vinciguerra Monday, 06 September 2010 05:34
Agnostics don’t exist. The idea of an informed and intelligent person not being able to determine if they do or do not believe in the existence of a god or gods is incredulous at best.
The majority of self-described agnostics are really one of two things; a weak theist, or a weak atheist. And most of them fall into the atheism side of the spectrum.
Agnosticism is the belief that the existence of god and the non-existence of god are equally likely in probability. In other words, evolution and the big bang are equally as plausible as creation and magic sky pixies.
The problem is that almost no one who calls themselves an agnostic really believes this. Large portions are in fact weak atheists. However, the term atheist has a lot of stigma associated with it.
A 2006 study by researchers at the University of Minnesota involving a poll of 2,000 households in the United States found atheists to be the most distrusted of minorities, more so than Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians, and other groups. Many of the respondents associated atheism with immorality, including criminal behavior, extreme materialism, and elitism.
Who would want to be a part of that group? Atheists are the most hated minority in the United States. They’re also the most misunderstood. Polls like the one that the University of Minnesota conducted also reveal that atheists are believed to be downright evil. Calling one’s self “agonistic” is a safer social alternative.
A further misconception about atheists is that they, one hundred percent, without question and with the fervor of evangelical theists, believe that god does not and cannot exist.
That notion is generally false. What is true is that atheists believe that there’s a higher degree of probability that life and the universe came about through natural processes than through the divine will of a deity that can be neither seen nor heard.
Ironically, this is the same thing that many agnostics believe. The difference is that they think leaving the door open to the possibility of the existence of god is a noble distinction between themselves and atheists.
In fact, anyone who holds such a belief is a de facto atheist. Furthermore, because a negative can never be proven, there is always an outside possibility that there may be a god, therefore the typical atheist acknowledges that there’s a possibility they could be wrong. On the other hand, a that is an outcome that a strong theist could never admit to.
The other sub sect of so-called agnostics are weak theists. These are people who generally reject the dogma of organized religion, and have formed their own ideas of god and an afterlife and mix it with their knowledge of science. These are typical egonovists.
To illustrate my point I am going to refer to what I call the Dawkins Scale. Richard Dawkins eloquently described the difference between theist, agnostic, and atheist in his bestselling book, The God Delusion.
On the Dawkins Scale, only an exact four is a true agnostic. One through three are theists, and five through seven are atheists.
A lot of self described agnostics fall into the five to six range. They don’t want to commit 100 percent that there isn’t a god. They operate under the misconception that atheists fall into the seven category.
In actuality, virtually no atheist would fit into category seven on the scale. That requires as much faith and ignorance of the natural world as a category one. Atheists tend to fall into category six, the same spot as most agnostics. Some philosophers go as far to make a distinction and refer to this range as “agnostic-atheism,” but nevertheless, it is a true atheist position.
It’s important to make the distinction between agnosticism and atheism because of the persecution of atheists. If more people who are in actuality de facto atheists are willing to identify themselves as such, then those who know them wouldn’t consider them to be amoral or evil; they would be able to understand atheism in an all new personal light.
Atheists who identify themselves as agnostics are doing a grave disservice to free and rational thinkers. Only be identifying themselves for what they truly are and standing up for their beliefs can the prejudice and suspicion of atheists be reconciled in the minds of average Americans.