I love religion 🙂 More specifically, I love the philosophical branch of theology and studied the history of, psychology of, growth, and development of religion.
I am a Weak Agnostic borderline Atheist.
From Wikipedia
Agnosticism has sometimes been divided into two categories in academic and philosophical treatment:
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Strong agnosticism (also called “hard”, “closed”, “strict”, or “permanent agnosticism”)
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The view that the question of the existence or nonexistence of a deity or deities, and the nature of ultimate reality is unknowable by reason of our natural inability to verify any experience with anything but another subjective experience. A strong agnostic would say, “I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, and neither can you.”[26][27][28]
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Weak agnosticism (also called “soft”, “open”, “empirical”, or “temporal agnosticism”)
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The view that the existence or nonexistence of any deities is currently unknown but is not necessarily unknowable; therefore, one will withhold judgment until evidence, if any, becomes available. A weak agnostic would say, “I don’t know whether any deities exist or not, but maybe one day, if there is evidence, we can find something out.”[26][27][28]
Agnosticism is sometimes used colloquially to refer to plurality of beliefs. An agnostic in this case might claim, “The concepts of a universe with or without a God represent intellectual tools that aid our exploration of reality; neither of these ideas are inherently wrong and both bear a useful conceptual utility.”
And Wikipedia says this on Atheism…
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.[1][2] In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.[3][4][5] Most inclusively, atheism is the absence of belief that any deities exist.[4][5][6][7] Atheism is contrasted with theism,[8][9] which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one deity exists.[9][10][11]
In short, Atheism is NOT the same thing as Agnosticism. And Agnosticism is NOT to be confused with Gnosticism, which is a branch of Christianity. An Atheist claims that there is no god as adamantly as a Christian claims there is one. In my opinion—and with the utmost respect to all religions—I believe neither are in a position to claim anything adamantly without proof. In my opinion, the Atheist is just as wrong as the Christian because neither really knows, nor can they know. Again…in my opinion while I hold the highest respect to all religions.
This is where the Christian presents their argument on Faith and that, my dearest Theist, that is where you and I differ. I do not hold any credibility on Faith, while you embrace it. I am a Doubting Thomas in the most purist form.
(I associate faith with being in a position of being hurt due to my past and I associate faith with my pedophile. Never…NEVER…believe anything without proof is the lesson I learned growing up. Faith bit me in the backside too often.)
