Ignorance And Agnosticism example essay topic

"Agnosticism is the philosophical position that it is impossible to know about the nature or existence of God". The term was invented in 1869 by Thomas H Huxley from the Greek "agnostos". So one can define the difference between an Atheist and an Agnostic is simply as the Atheist emphasizes that there is no God, whereas the Agnostic maintains only that he does not know. Agnosticism is not a position one can take like theism or atheism, rather it's more like an rational process. But when we consider ignorance along with agnosticism which is a mode of the intellective process, there is an obvious contradiction. Because ignorance is not just mere lack of a knowing, conversely, every ignorance is always a process of being ignorant of something quite precise.

In other words, one who ignores knows in a particular form what it is that he ignores. For example, a person who has no knowledge on economics is not ignorant of what a Cobb-Douglas equation is, because he lacks information to such equations. Only the man who is told about Cobb-Douglas equations, and does not know what we are talking about because he does not understand the meaning of the words, only then is this man ignorant of what a Cobb-Douglas equation is. Thus when one takes agnosticism into account when trying to conquer ignorant, inconsistency will arise. Agnosticism that deteriorates into an "I am ignorant about religion" statement is not agnosticism at all because it has already made a decision, that there can be no decision to the subject and that such a decision is not important. A statement like this is not agnostic, but assured of its ignorance and thus not agnosticism at all.

A atheist says he absolutely knows there is no God. Such a proclamation is outside his fixed understanding, and can not be convincingly confirmed. Agnostics admits their own finiteness and ignorance. Ignorance and agnosticism are two entirely different things.

For instance, I don't know much about quantum physics, but that does not make me agnostic about quantum physics; it makes me ignorant. In conclusion, The human mind can only be open if there is definitely something to discover and learn about, and we are constantly pursuing those knowledge whether one is agnostic or not. But when one becomes ignorant, then there is nothing to discover, and an agnostic can totally loses his direction in life. Agnosticism is not mere ignorance, but ignorance of something, which is ignored because it has not been intellective ly found. Therefore, agnosticism is not fully alien either to the reality of God or His intellection. It is rather alien to the strict knowledge of God.

Hence, the ignorance of the agnostic is not lack of knowledge of God, but an intellection more or less specific of Him.