What is an agnostic?

Ebtisweetsam said:
So if an agnostic believs in God, does he believe in Life after Death?
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hi,
agnostics are a varied group so i can only speak for myself. i believe in god but not in an afterlife. i realize that it is possible that there may be one, but nothing in my experience has led me to believe that there is.
 
Perhaps its just me, but if you believe in God, you are not an agnostic.

From my understanding, believing in God but not knowing anything else makes more in-line with Deism than agnosticism
 
poga said:
:sl: agnostic is the person who agonise and suffers with belief and disbelief
they try to understand the faith with knowledge and logic alone and knowledge and logic needs supporing evidence while sign of ALLAH is every where but ALLAH is AL BATIN therefore faithful are he who believes the unseen ALLAH :w:
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actually, at least speaking for myself, i do not agonize over this at all. i have always been agnostic. most of my life i did not believe in god, but in recent years i have come to believe in god. i have never had any struggles with belief and disbelief or felt a need to find a religion.
 
Isambard said:
Perhaps its just me, but if you believe in God, you are not an agnostic.

From my understanding, believing in God but not knowing anything else makes more in-line with Deism than agnosticism
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I believe in god. But not the god as described by theists.
I know that god is not provable. From that I conclude we know nothing about him. And likewise, no one else does either.

So what do you call some one who knows we can not know?

I call them agnostic.
 
wilberhum said:
I believe in god. But not the god as described by theists.
I know that god is not provable. From that I conclude we know nothing about him. And likewise, no one else does either.

So what do you call some one who knows we can not know?

I call them agnostic.
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"Deism derives the existence and nature of God from reason and personal experience, in contrast to theism (with religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism) which relies on revelation in sacred scriptures or the testimony of other people.

Deists typically reject supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and tend to assert that God does not interfere with human life and the laws of the universe. Deists commonly respect divine revelation prominent in organized religion, along with holy books as conveying the reasoning and personal experience of others."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism

You sound pretty 'deistic' to me :P
 
Isambard said:
"Deism derives the existence and nature of God from reason and personal experience, in contrast to theism (with religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism) which relies on revelation in sacred scriptures or the testimony of other people.

Deists typically reject supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and tend to assert that God does not interfere with human life and the laws of the universe. Deists commonly respect divine revelation prominent in organized religion, along with holy books as conveying the reasoning and personal experience of others."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism

You sound pretty 'deistic' to me :P
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just to note on ur first point....theists derive the existence and nature of god from a combination of reason and personal experience and on revelation which aids in the illumination of such reason and personal experienece...the revelations serve...if interpreted well, as a users handbook for the universe...it teaches us how to read the world ane personal experiences etc...and find God therein...well in islam anyway...

i shud edit wikipedia...:P
 
Ebtisweetsam said:
So if an agnostic believs in God, does he believe in Life after Death?
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:sl:
group people found them self in dung hole
and agnostic among them started discussion how they end up there
but one simple human among them said we know this is sh#t what there to discuss men lets get out of here
but he was silenced as blind believer:w:
 
Nope...that all beats the hell outta me. Not a clue.

The fish strikes radishes opulantly.
 
wilberhum said:
I believe in god. But not the god as described by theists.
I know that god is not provable. From that I conclude we know nothing about him. And likewise, no one else does either.

So what do you call some one who knows we can not know?

I call them agnostic.
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i understand where your coming from :).

but you see the problem here is that, would anyone create anything without an instruction manual? If i was to create a complex machine full of intricacies i would at least create an instruction manual so that the person who uses it knows what till ruin it and what will prosper it.

You see in this same way we believe that over the billions of years Allah has been sending prophets and messengers (which number 124,000) to teach us from the manuals. Because the instructions arent always enough, we might have the book and not understand it, we also need teachers. Does it not make sense that the most merciful will send guidance to his creatures?
 
IbnAbdulHakim said:
i understand where your coming from :).

but you see the problem here is that, would anyone create anything without an instruction manual? If i was to create a complex machine full of intricacies i would at least create an instruction manual so that the person who uses it knows what till ruin it and what will prosper it.

You see in this same way we believe that over the billions of years Allah has been sending prophets and messengers (which number 124,000) to teach us from the manuals. Because the instructions arent always enough, we might have the book and not understand it, we also need teachers. Does it not make sense that the most merciful will send guidance to his creatures?
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A major difference between us is that you think we are the result of a multi billion year plan.

I think we are the result of random chances.
 
^ lol but then how does God fit into it? You mean this God you think that exists is just a universal power, the starter, the initiator but he controls nothing :?
 
IbnAbdulHakim said:
^ lol but then how does God fit into it? You mean this God you think that exists is just a universal power, the starter, the initiator but he controls nothing :?
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How does god fit into it? I don't know. (That is the advantage of being Agnostic:D )

But I don't think we are a big concern.
If we were, surly most of the horrible things in this world would not exist.
 
wilberhum said:
But I don't think we are a big concern.
If we were, surly most of the horrible things in this world would not exist.
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i see, to me it sounds like you dislike the idea of this world being a means of a test which means that much harsh suffering must be endured, im not saying its an easy concept to grasp :).

but if you really do think about it then there is also much mercy in this world, much which cant be explained. Theres also much we dont know of how God is distributing his justice, much we cant see. So what makes us good judges? isnt it best to go by what seems most evident, to me this is islam... to you it may be something else..
 
IbnAbdulHakim,
I find "Life is a test", illogical. God would already know the results, Right?

Isn't it best to go by what seems most evident?
Yes, to you this is islam. To me it is something else.
 
wilberhum said:
IbnAbdulHakim,
I find "Life is a test", illogical. God would already know the results, Right?
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isnt it more illogical for God to put you into hell and tell you that you've done all these bad deeds? and then when you ask "what when? WHERE?" he will say "well my knowledge ascertains that you would have done it had i placed you on earth". You would want that time right?


so isnt it more logical that we go through this test?
 
IbnAbdulHakim said:
isnt it more illogical for God to put you into hell and tell you that you've done all these bad deeds? and then when you ask "what when? WHERE?" he will say "well my knowledge ascertains that you would have done it had i placed you on earth". You would want that time right?


so isnt it more logical that we go through this test?
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I don't think there is a hell.
If god created someone he knew was going to hell, I would think god has an evil side.
 
Indeed.

It is interesting how so many assume that given God exists, he must be good.

THe only way that would be a logical assumption is if you define "good" as "God's Will", which I think some theists actually do. And then "good" and ethical/constructive/friendly/kind become entirely different concepts.
 
The idea of a "bad" or "Evil" God.
One that causes Droughts and famines, earthquakes that kill 200000 and Tsunami's that kill 400000.

A lot of Theists feel these "Acts of God" are acts of God.
Now God will "Do as he pleases" and ""Punish those he sees fit", so obviously the several thousands of babies who died during these acts would have grown up "Evil" and therefore deserved to die. Who are we to argue otherwise!
 
^ or maybe those babies were saved from a harsh life and given solace in jannah (paradise) :)
 

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