agnosticism
nounUK /æɡˈnɒstɪsɪzəm/ · US /æɡˈnɑstɪsɪzəm/
Etymology Coined by Thomas Henry Huxley. From a- + gnostic + -ism (see also agnostic).
1
The view that absolute truth or ultimate certainty is unattainable, especially regarding knowledge not based on experience or perceivable phenomena.
2
The view that the existence of God or of all deities is unknown, unknowable, unproven, or unprovable.
- Holonyms: epistemology, cosmology, ontology, philosophy
3
Doubt, uncertainty, or scepticism regarding the existence of a god or gods.
- 1956, January 31ˢᵗ: Alan Alexander Milne; quoted in:
- 1988: James B. Simpson, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, № 4,393 (Houghton Mifflin, →ISBN The Old Testament is responsible for more atheism, agnosticism, disbelief — call it what you will — than any book ever written; it has emptied more churches than all the counterattractions of cinema, motor bicycle and golf course.
4
Broadly Doubt, uncertainty, or scepticism regarding any subject of dispute.
- Derived terms
- agnostic, agnostically, agnostics, antiagnosticism
- Related terms
- agnosia, agnosy, Gnostic, Gnosticism, ignostic, ignosticism