What is the difference between an Agnostic and an Atheist?
To be as comprehensive as I can: the prefix “a” means “without” and “theism” means “belief in god(s).” There is a distinction between “believing there are not any gods” and “not believing in gods.” The former is a positive statment (ie, an assertion) wheres the latter is a negative statement (ie, absence of assertion). For example, infants are atheists in that they hold no beliefs about gods. Some would shudder at such a thought, but to interpret it like this is solely based upon the assumption that atheism is inherently wrong. That is neither here nor there. That burden rests upon those who condemn. It is also a common error to claim that atheists say that the non-existence of gods can be proven. This is simply not the case. Agnosticism’s claim is that the existence of gods is beyond the scope of human knowledge; knowing that gods exist or don’t exist is impossible. Therefore, the agnostic claims to suspend judgement on the matter and asserts no claim either way. Agnosticism has been
They aren’t mutually exclusive. An agnostic is one category of atheist, like ‘persian’ is one category of cat. I am both, for instance (an atheist, specifically an agnostic – not a persian cat. 😉 The prefix “a-” means without, or not. A theist is someone with a belief in a god or gods. Therefore, the word atheist means nothing more than “someone who does not have a belief in a god or gods.” It doesn’t mean they’re sure; it doesn’t mean they hate theists; it doesn’t mean they eat babies. It just means they don’t happen to hold that belief. Many agnostics choose to use that word to separate themselves from the unfortunate social stigma of the word “atheist.” But many of us own the term for what it is and don’t give a crap about the social stigma.
