Agnostic Confusion

Visiting Adelaide this week, I was driving down Cheltenham Parade and came across the following sign proudly displayed on the front of a garage:

Agnostic’s Society:

God, save me from

Your followers!

Upon reading the sign I was both saddened and compelled to have a chuckle – saddened because men are emboldened to display their hatred of God; compelled to chuckle at the sheer inconsistency contained in the statement.

1.What is Agnosticism:

The term “Agnostic” comes from the Greek word for knowledge (gnosis) prefixed with the privative “a”. The privative acts to negate. Allow me to illustrate. Something in equal proportion is symmetrical. If not, it is asymmetrical

The agnostic, by describing himself in this manner, is really trying to claim that there is not enough knowledge in this world for him to make an adequate decision on whether or not God exists. Unlike the atheist,[1] the agnostic becomes a theistic fence-sitter – or does he?

2. The Passive Agnostic:

The answer is, no! The agnostic chooses a more middle-of-the-road title, but as the sign above indicates, a more-middle-of-the road attitude is not always present. If the agnostic were true to the title, you would reasonably expect these people to be open to data and to information that leads them to the “knowledge of God”. However, as the sign above shows, this is not the case.

Therefore, it is important for the Christian to understand that there is little difference between an atheist and an agnostic. At best it is a difference in the degree of bitterness in the fruit and not a difference in the fruit itself.

3. The Confused Agnostic (atheist):

As sad as the agnostics stand is, one cannot help but have a little chuckle at the gross confusion displayed. Let us take the sign above as an example. Proudly on display is a sign acknowledging that there are a group of people who are unaware of the knowledge of God. They take their stand in the fanciful realm known as “The Myth of Neutrality”. In effect, they are claiming that no one can really know for sure if God exists.

Yet, what is the rest of the sign? Does it not constitute a prayer? In fact, does it not constitute a prayer to the very Deity in which they are apt to disbelieve, based on the principle that there is not enough knowledge in this world?

Not only do they offer a prayer to this unknown or unknowable God, but they admit in this prayer that this God does in fact have followers. In that particular petition you see the true nature of the agnostic. He believes in salvation, but the salvation he seeks is from the very people that can testify to the truth of God and provide insights into the knowledge that the agnostic claims is missing.

This aspect is very intriguing. Why would you claim that belief in God is impossible and then immediately offer that God a prayer? Why would you deny the knowledge of God and then ask that God to spare you from those that actually follow Him?

In this the agnostic shares a great inconsistency with the atheist. The atheist is claiming that there is no God. Yet, the name he takes presumes, at the very least, that the possibility of an existent God is real. How can you use the privative to negate that which does not exist? How can you dislike brussel sprouts, if brussel sprouts do not exist?

Conclusion:

I raise these points to encourage Christians to stand firm and make a sound defence of the Gospel of God. The Christian apologetic is sound in that it is able to successfully interpret (make sense of) the world in which we live. The atheist and the agnostic do not have this same foundation. Whilst they attempt, at every turn, to deny the existence of God, they cannot escape God-language, God-concepts, God-conscience, God-morality, and a host of things beside.

If the atheist is consistent he should call himself by a term that makes no reference at all to theism. If the agnostic is consistent, he should not use the term God or admit that He has followers, lest the agnostic be found to be admitting that there is sufficient knowledge in this world to establish the fact that God does exist.