Weak agnosticism, or empirical agnosticism (also negative agnosticism), is the belief that the existence or nonexistence of deities is currently unknown, but is not necessarily unknowable, therefore one will withhold judgment until more evidence is available. Look up belief in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up deity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Personification of knowledge (Greek Επιστημη, Episteme) in Celsus Library in Ephesos, Turkey. ...

Weak agnosticism is in contrast to strong agnosticism, in which the agnostic believes that the existence of any gods is not only unknown, but is also unknowable to humanity. Neither type of agnosticism is fully irreconcilable with theism (belief in a deity or deities) nor strong atheism. A weak agnostic who also considers themselves a theist is likely in a state of doubt, though they are not necessarily having a crisis of faith. Weak agnosticism often overlaps with, and is often confused with, weak atheism, as both are a lack of belief rather than a belief in lack (of either knowledge or existence, respectively). Agnosticism (from the Greek a, meaning without and gnosis, knowledge, translating to unknowable) is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims — particularly theological claims regarding metaphysics, afterlife or the existence of God, god(s), or deities — is unknown or (possibly) inherently unknowable. ... Strong agnosticism or positive agnosticism is the belief that it is impossible for humans to know whether or not any God or gods exist. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal apes belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for wise man or knowing man) under the family Hominidae (known as the great apes). ... Theism is the belief in the existence of one or more Gods or deities. ... Look up deity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Strong atheism, sometimes called positive atheism, hard atheism or gnostic atheism, is the philosophical position that no deity exists. ... This article is about the mental state. ... Crisis of faith is a term commonly applied to periods of intense doubt and internal conflict about ones preconceived beliefs or life decisions. ... Weak atheism (also called negative atheism) is the lack of belief in the existence of deities, without a commitment to the necessary non-existence of deities. ...

Weak agnosticism and symbolic logic

The philosophy of weak agnosticism can be related to proof theory and can be expressed in terms of symbolic logic. Simply, if a person makes a statement A and claims that it is true, then he must prove that it is true. Similarly, if another person makes a statement A' (not A) and claims that it is true (or rather A is false), then he too must prove that it is true (or A false). Proof theory, studied as a branch of mathematical logic, represents proofs as formal mathematical objects, facilitating their analysis by mathematical techniques. ... Mathematical logic is a discipline within mathematics, studying formal systems in relation to the way they encode intuitive concepts of proof and computation as part of the foundations of mathematics. ...

Weak agnosticism vs indecision

Weak agnostics have often been accused of indecision, that is, "fence-sitters." This arises from a misunderstanding of weak agnosticism. The principle of weak agnosticism is not about a belief in God or a disbelief in God but about the belief in the statement "God exists" or the belief in the statement "God does not exist". Given that, to a weak agnostic, nothing has been shown to support either statement conclusively, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the data is inconclusive and believing in either is a leap of faith. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Criticism against weak agnosticism and response

Some atheists argue that believing in the possibility of a God is as ridiculous as believing in the possibility of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and so forth, and find it contradictory that weak agnostics believe in the possibility of the former but not any of the latter. However, to a weak agnostic, this fails to assess the situation logically and with clearly defined lines. To a weak agnostic the concepts of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Christian God, and so forth, are clearly defined claims akin to claiming the existence of alien life on a specific planet in our solar system, whereas the general concept of God is more akin to the concept of alien life anywhere in the universe. Given that Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and so forth, can be argued against using proofs and data, it is not contradictory to dismiss those things that can be disproven while keeping an open mind to those things that have not.

Bibliography

• Oppy, Graham. (1994). Weak agnosticism defended. in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. Vol. 36 (3), Dec. 1994. pp.147-167. Electronic text