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Agnosticism (Greek, ‘not knowing’), in religious terms, is the view that evidence for God\'s existence is balanced by evidence against, and that the human intellect is too limited to form any judgement as to whether God exists or not. Although the actual term was coined by T.H. Huxley in the 19th century, it was Kant who did most to develop the theme in his Critique of Pure Reason (1781). In this work, he states that human beings are constantly tempted to use concepts which are both intelligible and indispensable to normal reasoning, and that where speculations go further than the human experience they fool themselves into thinking that they can gain real insights. Agnostics of the 19th century, such as J.S. Mill and Leslie Stephen, added to this argument the use of scientific methods with regard to theological issues. EMJ
Further reading Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian. |
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