The position that the existence of God is unknown and, on the evidence available, unknowable; neither affirmed nor denied, but honestly left open.
Agnosticism was named by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869 for a discipline of the mind: follow reason as far as it goes and confess where it stops. Applied to God, it suspends judgment, holding that the evidence neither compels belief nor justifies denial. It is a stance about knowledge rather than a creed, and it stands between atheism and the faiths, refusing the certainty of both.
Agnosticism across the site
Essays (20) · History of Worldviews (4)
Sources
Primary
- Thomas Henry Huxley, Agnosticism (1889).
Secondary
- Bernard Lightman, The Origins of Agnosticism (1987).
How this compares to Christianity
How does this branch relate to the historic Christian faith?
This assessment has not yet been reviewed. Every verdict below stands at Not yet reviewed until the named theological reviewers supply it.
- Does it consider itself Christian?
- Not yet reviewed
- Did it arise from the Christian tradition?
- Not yet reviewed
- Does it affirm the ecumenical creeds?
- Not yet reviewed
- Is it recognized as Christian by the historic bodies?
- the Catholic Church: Not yet reviewed
- the Eastern Orthodox Church: Not yet reviewed
- the Oriental Orthodox churches: Not yet reviewed
- conciliar Protestant bodies: Not yet reviewed
- the WCC / National Council of Churches: Not yet reviewed
- This site's assessment
- Not yet reviewed
- Reviewer
- Not yet reviewed. The theological reviewers are named on the criteria page when they are appointed.
The comparative record for this entity, its points of convergence and divergence across the ten loci, has not yet been populated. It stands in the assessment queue on the criteria page.
What this assessment cannot settle
This assessment determines what this entity teaches and how that teaching relates to the historic Christian creeds. It does not determine whether any person is saved, whether God accepts their worship, whether they are sincere, or whether the criteria applied here are correct.
This assessment is made from the standpoint described in our editorial statement and our criteria page. It reports classifications; it does not rank sincerity, spiritual standing, or the eternal state of any person.