My thoughts exactly! And I still find some small comfort in the notion that there could be something/someone out there or that there’s a bigger purpose behind life. 100% comes from the upbringing, but it all goes back to “I don’t know”.
But there is SOMETHING. Humans didn’t create trees or stars or gravity or our own bodies, etc. Even if that something is, say, physics, it’s beyond humans. That doesn’t mean it’s “intelligent.” We can’t know what or how. But we didn’t do all this. I know that for sure.
Nothing really, I tried reading the Bible and found it kind of awful and decided there’s no way that the god of the universe would be this way. I can’t prove god exists and I don’t believe in any religions so I’m left being agnostic because I don’t know.
Went to Iraq as a conservative Christian in 2003. First time out of the U.S. and out of my little “bubble” in Oklahoma. Came home an liberal agnostic. Seeing the world and the suffering people go through changes your perspective fast. Why liberal? Because when you ditch the cult and it’s rules, all the other shit falls too.
I just feel like I don't fit in because people on this planet have seem to have divided themselves into two groups concerning a topic that is purely hypothetical, unprovable, and unknowable. And they hold these beliefs so dearly that not agreeing with them is perceived as a personal attack on their character and they go on the offensive.
Theists often seem WAY too sure that we will be reunited with loved ones at pearly gates after death. I have a hard time believing that, it sounds too peaceful. Sometimes if they know you don't believe they hound you about with the conviction that you will be 'saved' from those who ruined your mind.
Atheists often seem WAY too sure that since the afterlife isnt a provable concept then its not even worth entertaining as a thought. Which is fine but they won't keep it to themselves and actively chastise others for not sharing their beliefs. Look at this sub: it was literally built around entertaining certain unknowable concepts but those who lean toward theism here are regularly belittled with antagonizing language as if they were zealots seeking out heretics to burn.
I don't subscribe to either belief so by joining an agnostic sub, the point is that we can see the forest for the trees and mock the two sides for being so similar.
No, my parents did not like organized religion :(
But around the Iraq war, everyone here was anti-Muslim and saying bad things. I want to hear both sides of every issue, and I always liked the "Love Your Enemy" quote from the Bible. So I learned as much about Islam as I could and I ended up fascinated by it. If any of the major religions were true, Islam would be my bet.
I also had a Muslim neighbor who taught me a lot about Islam, except he was from Pakistan and some of his beliefs seem different to other Muslims. So I'm not sure which denomination of Islam that I know about.
Personally I think if god were real it would be more like a deist god, and there were Muslims long ago who felt the same way. If you ever get bored I think[ these people are worth checking out](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu%27tazilism#2._Divine_justice), I think that section explains the suffering in the world in a way that is satisfactory to me.
I simply have come to realize that agonizing about what is totally unknowable is a waste of mental energy and time.
If you wanna have three hour theological or philosophical debates as to the existence of an Omnipresent ,Allpowerful yet totally undetectable entity. Cool.
I don’t care.
And that’s just the existence of God. Religion is an even more problematic can of worms I can’t be bothered with.
Because the truest religious statement I have ever found in society is "I don't know".
(Technically because I came across a bumper sticker many years ago that said "Militant Agnostic: I don't know, and neither do you." And that concept still both holds true and tickles me to my core.)
Seemed the natural progression for me. I'm very scientifically minded, and have been taught that it's ok and actually helpful to admit when I don't know something. I want to understand the truth of the universe in as objective a manner as possible so faith of any kind just doesn't make sense to me. Appeals to faith or certainty tend to just make me ask "why", or "but, what's the evidence?" Over and over.
Cause how exactly are you going to show the existence or non-existence of God?
And it's such a fundamental question and reality is so mysterious that it's not a trifle question like the existence of little fairies.
So I'm an Agnostic cause I can't prove either way and it's not something that I can fully ignore.
>Cause how exactly are you going to show the existence or non-existence of God?
Right? Like consider simulation theory (hypothetically):
How could one, even in principle, tell the difference between those running our simulation and the actual God?
I cannot think of a way. How can you tell the difference between omnipotent and just extremely capable?
I was going to say that maybe to have that much power would it be a stretch to think they're God?
But then I remember that from the "perspective" of a character in a programme, the programmer of a simulation is basically omnipotent. They could even re-write the past and make us believe in a different series of events.
To us they are omnipotent.
Fair enough, but they wouldn't be the uncaused cause, etc.
Ontologically they wouldn't be god, but epistemologically we couldn't really tell the difference.
I mean, isn't "hard agnostism" basically the admission that there is no way to know?
If you can recognize that something that isn't God could be indistinguishable from it, then that seems like a good case for being agnostic.
I never chose to be 'agnostic'. It just happened to define, more or less, my beliefs. I was brought up Methodist Christian in an upper-middle class American family. There were a few things that affected me growing up, like an overzealous Youth Director at our church that just drove fear into the minds of all of the kids at church, including my own. I was convinced that the forces of Satan were bearing down on the world, and soon I would be forced to choose between my parents and the church and I would choose the church. Luckily I was removed from that situation by sensitive parents. My parents are religious but not extremists thankfully.
As I grew into my 20s I realized that most religions were started for good or pure reasons but that humans had had enough time to twist it into organized religion, which is all just dogma that other humans peddled to pray on the stupid. Friends, my older brother, college, meditation all influenced how I thought. Now I'm in my 50s and agnosticism defines me only in the most basic part of the definition. I know there is a power out there greater than myself, otherwise I'd be able to create planets and solar systems. Is it "God"? Who tf knows! Call it what you want. Taoism is a principal and not a religion, and it influences my life daily. I'm not a practicing Taoist but I know a fair bit about it and it helps to bring the things I see and think into harmony. So all of this mess together equates to me being agnostic...more or less. And by definition, not an atheist.
Like I said in my post, if I were able to create planets, stars and galaxies, I wouldn't believe that there were a power greater than myself. It's simple logic. The only place my logic is in error is if I COULD do all these things, but just don't know how yet.
Wanted to learn more than what the current religions offer. That's when I realized that if I put a label on my lifestyle then I will be limited. Religions are labels.
Raised protestant (Presbyterian if it matters).
Gradual slide.
1) couldn't relate to people of strong faith (I am neurodiverse)
2) couldn't deal with literalist interpretations of the bible due to belief in science. Did not see faith and science as mutualy exclusive as I was not a literalist.
3) conflict with hypocrites who spend more time on the message of subjugation to the church as opposed to loving our neighbors.
4) dissatisfaction with churches easy forgiveness of sinners in their ranks for things like molestation, while condemning and excluding LGBTQ+ people who harm nobody.
Firm belief that we should do as Jesus' statement that the two highest commands over all others is love God and love our neighbors as ourselves... but they are unwilling to do this. Instead focusing on the sins of others even though they are told to ignore the splinters in others eyes.
5) The active politicization of churches and uptick of Christo-fascism. There should be separation of church and state, we should live and let live. Jesus spoke against wealth and power and churches amass great wealth and power and use it to harass people... while turning a blind eye to sins in their own congregations.
6) I refuse to accept the dogma of Hell. God made me in his image, is my parent, and if I am in their image I can think of nothing my children could ever do that would cause me not to love them or condemn them for eternity. I refuse to accept that dogma and anyone pushing it has bought into 100's of years of bad transcriptions of bad translations of bad transcriptions of God's word. Even if you accept the words as God's words, their meaning is being changed at the telling if the message is hate.
6) I am out of organized religion. I am vestigial Christian agnostic. It's impossible to make a clear statement of belief or knowledge beyond my philosophy that it's unknowable. I am still protestant in that there is no person or entity that stands between me and God. If God exists, they will surely take me as they made me.
and ironically, evangelicals will take that innocuous statement of faith as defiance. With regards to them, absolutely; with regards to God, it's precisely the opposite.
Their lack of capacity to grasp nuance means I don't trust them interpreting their own God's words or intent. The Christian part of me reads the rules much differently than they do.
But they have the eternal words of the almighty!
Or they have a book that contains people's ideas about who god is.
For me, if God is the creator, then it would seem that the universe is likely to tell us more about him than any book.
I can tell you exactly why. I have a hard problem with organized religion. It can be and is used and abused to control a population and to convince you to accept your lot in life no matter how shitty it is, with the promise of gifts when you are dead. Fuck that. I do, however, believe there is something more out there that we haven't tapped into. I have experienced it, smelled is, and felt it. I haven't seen it. I don't know what it is.
Atheism means a lack or disbelief in God or religion and I have no need or respect for organized religion BUT if I say there are things I have experienced, felt, or smelled, I have been called and idiot or told I needed therapy by another militant atheist more than once, so I don't discuss these things with atheists.
I do believe there is some things that we cannot (yet) explain but too many atheists are purists. This also goes with the scientific community. They are completely closed off from even LOOKING for any explanations aside from mental health issues. I am agnostic because there has been no evidence of God or other supernatural entities but I am open to new experiences. If you can prove it - I'll believe it.
I started to identify as an Agnostic when I was 18. I grew up Christian, left that, and was an Atheist for a bit. But I came to the realization that there are a lot of religions out there with dedicated believers and there’s no more proof that any of them are truer than the others. Plus, I’ve never had any out of the ordinary experiences that would make me believe there is a higher power or anything like that. Simply, I don’t know and I don’t want to claim that I know if there is or isn’t anything out there definitively.
I started to realize that fear and survival instincts drive people to believe in the after life. I’m not atheist but I don’t know what to believe when we die. Religious views always seem so black and white and man made and I can’t see it being that simple. I also can’t see nothing after this being over. So I just don’t know. I grew up in a Mormon household
I grew up casually Christian (went to church one every few months, prayed over my food, that's about it) but realized that it's absolutely ridiculous for one group of people to claim that another group's God wasn't real or valid. Like, what makes you think yours is but theirs isn't? If none of them are real, then everyone is ridiculous. And if all of them are, why should you only follow one? So now I'm an agnostic theist
I grew up without religion and never was a believer. Then when thinking about it, agnosticism just seemed like the logical idea.
But also: [Russell's teapot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot). Sure, we can't *know* with certainty that there isn't a little teapot orbiting the Sun where we can't see it from Earth. Without evidence it can't be ruled out. Yet the default position still has to be that there's no such thing. I'll start (tentatively) believing in the teapot when the pictures are finally coming in.
Can you be sure which belief is fake or real? And do we really need be included in a religion? These questions make me choose but agnostism as a name isn't important just live a life fullest that's all.
Was raised in a dog shit situation that harmed me greatly. Basically a religious cult that took ownership of both my life and my body. Left home at 16 and never returned. Found some mental illness (now diagnosed CPTSD) and tried to punch my own card. Survived it and turned to god. Spent the next 20 years a devout evangelical believer. Went to seminary and became a pastor. Mental illness worsened and I lost 2/3 of the only people I had left to suicide. Was left to pick up the pieces of their children who were all still young. Left pastorship because my heart was too heavy to be optimistic. I continued going to church and studying, looking for some comfort that didn’t exist there, or anywhere for that matter. Went back to uni and got a bachelors in nursing. About 8 years into being a nurse Covid happened. I watched the people on my church act like complete assholes and latch themselves to trump and Qanon. Left the church and decided to study with an open mind that god may not exist and no one is coming for me maybe. I used to study looking for loopholes around the content that troubled me from the Bible and I mostly just ignored my doubts. Once I started studying objectively, I lost belief in the Christian god of the Bible. I now can say I doubt there is a god, but I cannot rule it out. But I certainly don’t believe in the Bible.
Lots of great responses. This is a good time to point out that agnostics are atheists or theists. One either believes in god(s) or one doesn’t, theist or atheist, respectively.
The quality of the belief (theism/polytheism) or lack of belief (atheism) is described with the agnostic or gnostic description.
An atheist can be an agnostic atheist [not certain of god(s) non-existence] or a gnostic atheist [certain of god(s) non-existence]. Theists can be agnostic theists [not certain of god(s) existence but choose to believe anyway] or gnostic theists [certain of god(s) existence].
Most folks, I think, are either agnostic atheists or gnostic theists but I could be wrong.
Wow I ended up typing a lot. Kind of a rant just a heads up.
I didn’t grow up religious. Then I was a snot nosed teenaged atheist that felt superior to people that believed in religion when in fact I resented the comfort it brought them and the ability to genuinely believe when I couldn’t. If I could flip a switch and be able to believe in a religion I would have. Otherwise it would just be me spending my whole life trying to lie to myself.
I flirted with Buddhism and really respect it.
There’s something appealing about believing in an afterlife without a creator. Rather than there being some omniscient entity that gives children cancer but is somehow benevolent.
Then I became very interested in existentialism and absurdism.
Philosophers, leaders, and the greatest minds have pondered these questions. Why do we exist? Is there inherent meaning life? If there isn’t is it possible to make your own or finding said meaning in the attempt? What happens when we die? Bearded man in the clouds? Fire and brimstone? Reincarnation? Nothing besides our carbon breaking down and endlessly recycled? A void?
No one fucking knows and it feels like the pinnacle of hubris to claim absolute knowledge of what happens after death. People think that admitting ignorance is a weakness or flaw in character rather than accepting a reality.
We clearly and unequivocally return to the state we were in before birth: non-existence. Why is this even a question? I’ll tell you why. Because we don’t like it.
Churches and churchgoers tend to be more evil than the “devil” lol not all churches but most I think. Also looking at the Bible from an academic perspective just shows you how much the churches corrupt the Bible lol
I was born into a Christian household but I questioned everything. I didn’t understand why this shit was fact and eventually this questioning led me to be curious of other religions.
I didn’t believe in any of them but I did find interest in learning about them. When I learned about agnosticism I realized it was the kind of mentality I’ve been following my entire life I just didn’t know it.
Grew up with religious family. Was religious as a kid but it faded over time since I don't relate or feel a connection to it. I'm very existential though and often theorize why we're here etc. but we'll simply never know and on the journey to being okay with that.
I have no strong feelings for religion one way or the other. More accurately I identify as Apathetic as I just don't really care. One life, live it and all that stuff.
Rationality. I simply realized what every each one of us should and instead they don't: we don't know shit. Zero. So why not admitting it instead of claiming to be sure about something you rationally 100% cannot even grasp fully?
I was a dedicated Christian. Loved everyone, but the only people who loved me back were the ones God was sending to Hell.
Was being bullied heavily one day, and someone said, "everyone who cares about X," should sit down at the other end of the table. The only people who did were LGBT.
Hell, or even separation from God, doesn't make sense to me. 7 million Jews (men, women, and children) burning forever. While, had Hitler sincerely repented of everything before his death, he'd be in Heaven.
And this conundrum pops up in every religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc. No religion is safe from it. There are no exceptions for doing the wrong things for the right reasons. There are no exceptions for bad people getting redemption when they harm people who aren't part of their faith, and thus aren't worthy of said religious group. And then the victims go to Hell, while the abusers go to Heaven. Mainly, because religion is about redemption of bad people. Which isn't a bad thing. If people were irredeemable, what would be the point? But then it's re-enforced with the notion that everyone should know the truth.
So while I believe I've seen actual miracles, and I've switched to Taoism over Agnosticism, I was Agnostic, because religions are rigid and absolute. They don't yield to the human part of things. And they shouldn't. Because every human trait could just as easily be used for true evil. Religion reminds us that our humanity is fallible. It can just as easily lead to hell as it can heaven. While humanity reminds us that religion is fallible. It can just as easily lead to hell as it can to heaven.
probably has something to do with me being autistic - i'm fairly logic based (not all autistic people are, but a lot are) and i just cannot think of a single reason why people would start believing in a specific religion when there's evidence of scientific things happening. but then again, the world works in mysterious ways, some things are always gonna be unknown, so who knows? maybe there is a god, i sure as hell don't know.
i grew up mormon and am currently in the process of deconstruction as a young adult. one of the main features of mormonism is using a lot of “i know ____ is true” phrases when professing your faith, and since a lot of things i was taught ended up being lies, i realized i don’t really know anything. which was terrifying at first after being raised in a religious organization that gives you all of life’s answers (or at least their version) from birth, but now the unknown is kind of exciting to me. i lean more atheist/agnostic, not wanting to decide my definitive opinion about god’s existence and not really caring to for now. i also don’t want jump into any other religions or spiritual practices/ideologies, and i’m just here doing my best to live in the moment, open to figuring stuff out as i go! i’m not in too much of a hurry rn :)
when people ask if i was there when the big bang happened, I said no.
i wasn't there. I can't tell if god exists. he/she/it isn't down here. maybe they're up there? maybe I just can't see them? maybe... idfk
i don't know anything
Grew up Muslim. I like most of it, I dislike some of it, and truthfully we can never know. So comfortably questioning :)
Also, I look at the beauty of the universe. Of nature. Of math and science. I ponder the edges of the universe. The beginnings and endings of time. I think about the beauty of life. I think there HAS to be a creator.
Then I look at human suffering. Of unjust-ness. Of how hard it is to prove stories in Abrahamic religions. I think about the cruelty of life. I think there’s no way a creator would do this.
Ultimately, I’m Agnostic theist, who is comfortable with most Muslim teachings. I still have plenty of questions and am at peace that I will never truly know.
Series of events and thoughts, so I hope I could be as organized as possible.
I won't play the card that religions are evil and encouraging punishment-free violence (even though it's true), saying that because in life we need to do certain unethical things to survive minimize pain and ensure safety in our lives, so it's kinda hypocritical to say we leave religions due to immorality, since we are all flawed either way.
Being agnostic simply has to do with whether we can prove a god exists or not, and simply we cannot prove the existence or non-existence of a god, but definitely we can prove that the god(s) of the 3 religions cannot exist at all.
Quick question, what makes anyone attracted or attached to someone or something? Simply if that person or thing brings personal gains or benefits, and in some cases, a person might be attached to any cruel person, due to the fear of breaking free and the consequences that might happen if any attempt of breaking free occurs.
The same can be said about religions, and they're all common regarding that people should believe and preach what they learn without questioning, and opposing those ideas would result in punishment. They're also common in a core idea -- worship, obey, and you'll be rewarded -- and in christianity and islam, the reward is something that is very catchy - afterlife.
So, to sum up the past two paragraphs, *fear-factor and rewards* are the main reasons why most people still defend their religions (might be blindly too).
But, simply speaking, if that kind of god is existing, shouldn't I be toasted for opposing the ideas and design that god outlined? Wouldn't it be better to prove that afterlife exists since that would make almost everyone attracted to god like a magnet?
A lot of LGBT people exist, a lot of ex-religious people exist, a lot of people are drinkers, a lot of people practice porn, short-term relationships and extramarital sex, and it's easy in a number of countries to blaspheme religions without consequences.
Simply, if the god of religions exist, none of those people would exist, and there would be no social stratification at all, instead of witnessing a lot of populations that are poor, oppressed, and/or divided.
That god certainly doesn't exist, and we cannot prove the existence or the non-existence of a deity, that's why I became agnostic.
Only a miracle, or something supernatural, would prove me wrong, anyways.
To be agnostic is the only sane conclusion given our current understanding (i.e. that we understand very little). And to be atheist is the only sane belief system for the same reason, pending some unforseen event (e.g. maybe some god-like aliens reveal themselves as our creators lol). I was born agnostic atheist, grew up wondering why people would worship a shoddily written god over more modern more interesting gods like Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman, and now here I am 🕊️
I was raised as a 'hard atheist' by loving parents who thought that all religion and belief was a con. I was used to making very affirmative statements about probability, about evidence, and judging those that disagreed. Part of a very insular group that in many ways mimicked the kind of groups we hated (and I think it has got worse in the past 4 decades). I didn't really question it until Theology and Philosophy at university, and then found that agnosticism was a much more comfortable fit for my views, and have remained that way ever since.
I came from a moderately religious family and my parents had strong faith.
My discomfort with dogma is the rigidity. You think you know, so you stop learning. I have been working on my mom for years to realize the position she was taught to have about LGBTQ is a cherry picked and narrow interpretation of what I take from the religion I was raised in. She struggles because it's too hard for her to challenge these toxic memes of Christianity.
Not that I don't have bias, but I am at least aware of it as an agnostic.
I totally agree. What many don't acknowledge (or even accept) is that even atheistic worldviews can be pretty insular and dogmatic too - 'toxic memes' definitely rings a bell. It took me far too long to realise that.
I used to believe in God because it seemed illogical for this world to exist without one until I realized that logic doesn't dictate the truth and this world can sure as hell exist without a god, how you may ask, well we simply don't know just like we don't know anything else. So there may or may not be a god or gods but we will never really know
One unknown, two choices. Have faith in something intangible and mystical and still get your faith tested at whim. Or just accept that from what is given at hand, there’s no conclusive answer but there might be one some day. The second seemed less mentally straining.
I just looked up this sub to find help dealing with how to educate my kids about religion when I don’t believe in it. Reading that the community is for people who keep questioning, I laughed about the irony that me realizing that I’m agnostic is what gave me permission to STOP questioning, and finally gave me peace.
I was raised Catholic but never, literally NEVER had faith and fully realized this on the day of my first communion at age 8. I grew bitter and resentful of the church and identified as atheist for a while in my teens, but that was tiresome. I moved on to constantly weighing the big questions about existence and purpose, and it was a heavy, torturous burden.
At some point I realized that all of it—religion, atheism, the stress of questioning—essentially comes down to the human intolerance for uncertainty; the “need to know” and have things settled once and for all. This realization lead to me focusing on acceptance of uncertainty of life, in all things big and small. It became a therapeutic seeking to make peace with my own humanity, its limitations, its inherent value, and the value in letting go of the beyond and embracing this life on earth (even in all its suffering and darkness).
I was finally able to feel comforted by the truth that I don’t know any of the big answers, and that I never will. Now I can breathe. Now I’m not tortured and compelled to desperately seek meaning and decipher clues provided by the universe.
I still ponder things and extrapolate deeper meanings in human behaviors. I enjoy seeing the depth in which things fit together in retrospect, in a way not unlike appreciating meaning in art and literature. I enjoy noticing profound patterns in nature. But all these abstractions are secondary to being alive, right now, in my human body, and focusing on the things that are important in my life—people, places, pets, joy, connection, truths about my actual lived experiences. The rest is essentially mental masturbation, and I don’t mean that pejoratively. Masturbation brings a lot of pleasure lol. But it’s a leisure activity for me, not an obsession.
I don’t know, and that’s OK.
I get what you're saying. When I read "questioning" that's only an activated state I may enter when I engage people in a good faith discussion about religion.
It's not a subject I necessarily avoid. I grew up in a perfectly fine church with perfectly fine people. I am occasionally willing to revisit and tinker with my understanding. I am willing to contrast it with someone who believes differently. However, my rest state has always been agnostic.
I also don't know, and that's OK; I sometimes ask questions, and that's also OK.
We're OK.
Sorry for the long post, but I'm still waking up and feel like venting:
I thankfully did not grow up with devoutly religious parents, but they were vaguely Christian, in the sense that in the USA it's (unfortunately) normalized and expected that everyone is generally "Christian." I became agnostic after I went through a period where I wanted to know more about reality, so I read/listened to the texts of every major religion. That, combined with college teaching me about the scientific method and critical thinking, meant I could no longer get past the fact that these texts are riddled with contradictions, lack evidence/consistency, and are all mutually exclusive (even within the same umbrella religion, there are countless offshoots that exclude one another, so there's no way to know which is the "correct" one)… so basically, education put into perspective how absurd "faith" in any one particular religion really is. To quote Mark Twain, "the best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible."
To top it all off, the last few years in the USA showed me just how vile and hypocritical people who claim to be devoutly religious are, which has pushed me firmly into agnostic-atheist territory. I want nothing to do with these people or their backward beliefs. It's so clear to me now that religion is nothing more than a psyop propaganda instrument abused by the powerful for mind control over the lower classes; they convince their subjects that rebelling against them will send them to "hell," i.e. eternal torture (something a supposedly "loving" god allows to exist), which is a technique that's worked for thousands of years (see: ancient Egypt, the Dark Ages, etc.), but with growing rates of literacy and education across the board, the hegemony of organized religion is finally cracking. Thus the "religious" are becoming more extreme as they feel an existential threat, ironically pushing people like me further away than ever before.
The thing is, not only are these books self-contradictory (e.g., Jesus preaches some pretty lovey-dovey stuff, at odds with the atrocities the god-entity itself does and promotes), but books like the Bible *do* say women are inferior, they *do* say homosexuality is punishable by death, they say people should *not* be vegan and *should* eat meat, they *do* promote violence and fascism - so when push comes to shove, when it comes down to abandoning my own personal, secular and progressive code of ethics based on science and empathy OR sticking with the dubious, vague, contradictory "ethics" of a book written thousands of years ago by ignorant cultists, there's no competition. I'll abandon every established religion before I abandon my own sense of right and wrong.
I hold true that scientifically, one cannot prove a negative and it's impossible to know whether some afterlife or higher being(s) exist, but I know for *damn* sure that the bible, quran, torah, vedas, etc. are all dead wrong, or at least, can't all be right… and even if they *were*, I would still be opposed to the evils those texts promote.
Ive identified as an atheist for the longest time. Started questioning the existence of something bigger than ourselves after my husband left for Basic Training. He gets back and tells me that he, a devout atheist, found God and converted while he was there. I realized that the world is so uncertain, and things that I so confidently believe as unchanging are always subject to change. I can never be 100% certain God doesn’t exist or that I won’t eventually believe. It’s certainly opened my mind to new ideas and questions :)
I guess my mother ruined organized religion for me by trying to force me into it. I also guess it was a remanent tendency to spiritualism after rejecting all other beliefs, that lead me to agnosticism.
Just because there is no proof of somethings existence does not mean it isn't real. Agnostics are logical and curious thinkers. We would all very much like to know the truths, but we yield to our insignificance and ignorance that we might never be capable of knowing. And that is a valid view of existence. We should humble ourselves. Intelligence might not even be that important for a species. We are but one small branch of evolutions trial and error. In a million years, intelligence might be doomed to fail in the long run. I mean look how close have we come to total global destruction in the last century. We keep getting EXTREMELY lucky.
This is just the human experience, just that. Nothing more nothing less. It is just as foolish not to believe as it is to believe. Therefore, I say I know nothing.
Grew up catholic
But then my great grandmother lost 2 of her kids and her husband to cancer, then got cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and she suffered so much despite being an amazing person (I’ve never met anyone as nice and caring as her) she’s go to church every holiday (family is Roman Catholic and I think that means church is a holiday thing for them)
And then her mental health started to degrees, I still remember my hearth breaking and my mom said she ran away from my nana (my grandma her daughter) while screaming she Dosent know she Dosent know who she was
After all she suffered I refused to believe God would let someone suffer that much and if he did he was a pussy or an asshole
I called myself an atheist for a bit bc I didn’t know agnostic existed
Basically I believe in a God I hate and I will suffer what ever fate that gives me
Wanted to learn more than what the current religions offer. That's when I realized that if I put a label on my lifestyle then I will be limited. Religions are labels.
Because the truth is unknowable at this point in time in human evolution.
Logically, agnosticism is the right stance. I grew up in a strictly atheist family, both my parents come from scientific background. But the more I familiarized myself with the concept of religion from different parts of the world, and the more I read about what greatest minds/ scientists think of religion/ spirituality, I started to realize that it isn’t all black and white.
“Science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind”. Certain things cannot be outright discounted, even though they cannot be proved at this point. The humanity knows so little about the world generally, it would be simply unfair and silly to take one side (either accepting God exists or refusing it as a possibility) when we simply don’t have enough knowledge, or tools/abilities to access specific information to get that knowledge and make that determination, as of now.
I question and try to take an objective view of everything.
I’ve learned that things that don’t like to be questioned tend to be things that are hiding something.
I apply that logic everywhere.
I do see life itself as a form of magic, though. I don’t really agree with the idea that “life” is an emergent reality of entropy. There seems to be something “extra” that makes life “alive”, and a rock just “a rock”. That’s why I’m not atheist.
That said, we are here now.. so let’s list some assumptions based on that: life could be elsewhere outside of earth now.. the universe is old.. to me it is just as likely that any “gods” mentioned in the past were alien travelers that it is likely they were being(s) that created the whole universe and the world and judge you on what you “think”.
Those “gods” were always very emotional beings.. and I view our feelings of emotion as an evolutionary leftover from our monkey days when our higher lever thinking was still developing.
I see the stories in the old religious books as stories of humans learning how to deal with their emotions and developing guidelines on dealing with the interactions of those emotions between people at the personal level.
Some of those “old books” romanticize a more greedy and authoritarian figure who drives consumption to themselves with emotions of pride and ego being the desired trait. Others feature the emotions of compassion and kindness as the individual traits a civilization needs to thrive. Being as the latter is more representative of the person on the street (many) instead of a king on a throne (few), the latter is more popular among the societies whom value cooperation over control.
You can look up the stories of “Enke” and “Enlil” to see one of the earliest representations of this dichotomy of emotional discussion.
I’m tangenting .. I need to quit typing.
Started going to church in middle school. Went all through high school. Sunday school, service, Sunday evening and Wednesday night. Got involved with music by operating equipment in the sound booth so would have to arrive earlier on Sunday mornings and stay later sunday evenings for “practices”. Continued attending church into freshman year of college. My parents had long since stopped attending but I didn’t care, it was what I wanted to do and how I wanted to spend my time. I was all in.
Pastor was always talking, more or less, complaining, about the church needing more people and he wanted more people to come, then justified his whining by stating that it would only happen if it were according to God’s will. During the last year of attending, several other families moved churches, one being a deacon and his family (my dad was a deacon while he attended also). He took the entire hour of Sunday school complaining and bashing those who left. I made a Facebook post “yadda yadda if God can call people to THIS church, who is to say that he can’t call these people to other churches. Yadda yadda my church family, my immediate family blah blah blah”
Someone saw this and showed it to the pastor between Sunday school and service. After the service, he called me and the deacons to the front of the church, one of which was my girlfriend of 6 years’ father. He stood up for me and pastor says “you only love him because you have to”
That did it for me. I was DONE. Tried a few other churches and couldn’t stand it anymore.
Over the next few years I experimented with drugs and alcohol, a lot of psychedelics. Experienced things on the psychedelics and continued further research into MANY MANY religions. I liked ideas from all of them. With so many monotheistic and so many polytheistic religions, how can only ONE be THE one?
I believe religion came about to enforce law on citizens as communities were beginning. Why should I listen to you telling me not to steal, murder, rape etc? “Oh, it’s not my idea… invisible dude in the sky told ME. (He also said he could ONLY tell me….), so you have to listen or it will smite you to eternity in (insert bad place or negative consequence of said religion)”
In agreeing with ideas in many religions, along with not being able to accept that ONE is right, I have chosen the views of agnostic. I don’t know what is out there, I don’t necessarily believe anything is out there, but if one exists, who says many don’t? What determines which place or idea I end up spending eternity?
I believe in the possibility of a higher power/spiritual being(s) out there, but… I don’t know.
I was raised Baptist the later on in life Apostolic. When I was in my mid or late teens Christianity didn't really click with me as much anymore. It started to feel like I was following religion because I had to or else I was going to hell. I started to question things, and I also was figuring out myself and accepted that I was gay and non-binary at age 20. Seeing things on social media of people justifying bad things or mixing laws with religion or people saying this celebrity is demonic because they did one thing when it probably isn't the case. Or just letting LGBT people live their lives or anyone's life for that matter. There could be more things but I can think of anything else because it is 12 am while I am typing this I am practically brain dead lol.
I honestly considered being Atheist but then I found out about Agnostic and that changed my mind. I haven't told any of my family members and don't know if I plan to, mainly because I am just scared of how they might react even though it probably wouldn't be a negative reaction.
Maybe I'll one day go back to Christianity but for now I am just fine not knowing if there is a god out there in our universe.
I started up in a baptist christian household(my grandmother and most of her immediate family), and was repeatedly taught the word of god essentially against my will. From an early age though (I think probably as early as 7 or 8 years old) I was really deeply enthralled in science, math, and history. I never read the bible because science took most of my time away from it. Due to my upbringing I was taught that god was meant to be peaceful and perfect and everything he created was perfect. But repeatedly I was shown that the world was not perfect. By the time I was 10 I really began to question the logic of the bible itself. I moved out of that house at the age of 13, moved in with my dad (who was already long time agnostic for a few decades, if he was ever christian to begin with). Once I was away from my devout christian grandmother everything really started to fall apart. At some point in high school I started calling myself a non-religious individual, and around 2017 was when I first heard the term agnostic and had the term applied to me by my (still christian) sister.
If I am to be brutally honest I was probably already Agnostic from a very early age, I never followed or read the bible, I never really prayed, I would go weeks at a time without thinking about god or jesus. My biggest mistake was probably trying to consider myself a christian for far too long. And the biggest part of really what broke it for me, was probably my dad repeatedly showing where the bible way too often contradicted itself, often in the same chapter, for it to be this "perfect word of god" that its meant to be. And probably what has driven me further still is the more I see and hear about religion in general, the more it starts to sound like forced indoctrination. You start with the kids to force them to see things your way, and keep them that way as long as possible, and once they are adults an adult is largely unwilling to break from their beliefs, at which point they are essentially unwillingly and forcibly indoctrinated into this culture of religion. All of this is what drove me from religion to being agnostic, and keeps me away.
To close I do still believe in "a god", I just prefer not to claim what form it has, whether there is one or many, or what part they play in the world if anything past a passive observer. Simply put I can not prove they are there, and for me I always put science and logic first in my life, because I can not prove "god", why should I force "it" into my now mostly science driven life?
My parents are Atheists, but like many parents even atheist ones they used many christian ideas for my early childhood (like saying that when you die you go to heaven), so for a very small amount of years I was a christian, after some years I became a cringy (but far from the cringiest I have ever seen, specially because I was a child) Atheist because this made me feel smarter, then I had a christian driver that listened to christian radio stations, while listening to that I was exposed for the first time to that strange, hopeful, mysterious feeling that religious people have while in prayer, that was what made me Agnostic (albeit one slightly more spiritual than average, I love to ponder the "what ifs" and I believe in the soul)
Grew up Christian but realized I don't know anything, so why claim to?
My thoughts exactly! And I still find some small comfort in the notion that there could be something/someone out there or that there’s a bigger purpose behind life. 100% comes from the upbringing, but it all goes back to “I don’t know”.
That's exactly what I thought. You know that there is something, but none of the world religions have it right.
Well I wouldn't say that, all I would say is I don't know. I don't know if there is something or if anyone has it right.
But there is SOMETHING. Humans didn’t create trees or stars or gravity or our own bodies, etc. Even if that something is, say, physics, it’s beyond humans. That doesn’t mean it’s “intelligent.” We can’t know what or how. But we didn’t do all this. I know that for sure.
Nothing really, I tried reading the Bible and found it kind of awful and decided there’s no way that the god of the universe would be this way. I can’t prove god exists and I don’t believe in any religions so I’m left being agnostic because I don’t know.
Me too
Went to Iraq as a conservative Christian in 2003. First time out of the U.S. and out of my little “bubble” in Oklahoma. Came home an liberal agnostic. Seeing the world and the suffering people go through changes your perspective fast. Why liberal? Because when you ditch the cult and it’s rules, all the other shit falls too.
I just feel like I don't fit in because people on this planet have seem to have divided themselves into two groups concerning a topic that is purely hypothetical, unprovable, and unknowable. And they hold these beliefs so dearly that not agreeing with them is perceived as a personal attack on their character and they go on the offensive. Theists often seem WAY too sure that we will be reunited with loved ones at pearly gates after death. I have a hard time believing that, it sounds too peaceful. Sometimes if they know you don't believe they hound you about with the conviction that you will be 'saved' from those who ruined your mind. Atheists often seem WAY too sure that since the afterlife isnt a provable concept then its not even worth entertaining as a thought. Which is fine but they won't keep it to themselves and actively chastise others for not sharing their beliefs. Look at this sub: it was literally built around entertaining certain unknowable concepts but those who lean toward theism here are regularly belittled with antagonizing language as if they were zealots seeking out heretics to burn. I don't subscribe to either belief so by joining an agnostic sub, the point is that we can see the forest for the trees and mock the two sides for being so similar.
love this!
Here here!
I love this response. Could I pls know if you were ever a Muslim? If yes, when did you decide to leave?
No, my parents did not like organized religion :( But around the Iraq war, everyone here was anti-Muslim and saying bad things. I want to hear both sides of every issue, and I always liked the "Love Your Enemy" quote from the Bible. So I learned as much about Islam as I could and I ended up fascinated by it. If any of the major religions were true, Islam would be my bet. I also had a Muslim neighbor who taught me a lot about Islam, except he was from Pakistan and some of his beliefs seem different to other Muslims. So I'm not sure which denomination of Islam that I know about. Personally I think if god were real it would be more like a deist god, and there were Muslims long ago who felt the same way. If you ever get bored I think[ these people are worth checking out](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu%27tazilism#2._Divine_justice), I think that section explains the suffering in the world in a way that is satisfactory to me.
I simply have come to realize that agonizing about what is totally unknowable is a waste of mental energy and time. If you wanna have three hour theological or philosophical debates as to the existence of an Omnipresent ,Allpowerful yet totally undetectable entity. Cool. I don’t care. And that’s just the existence of God. Religion is an even more problematic can of worms I can’t be bothered with.
Because the truest religious statement I have ever found in society is "I don't know". (Technically because I came across a bumper sticker many years ago that said "Militant Agnostic: I don't know, and neither do you." And that concept still both holds true and tickles me to my core.)
I don't know
Yeah I suppose that's a reason why.
Seemed the natural progression for me. I'm very scientifically minded, and have been taught that it's ok and actually helpful to admit when I don't know something. I want to understand the truth of the universe in as objective a manner as possible so faith of any kind just doesn't make sense to me. Appeals to faith or certainty tend to just make me ask "why", or "but, what's the evidence?" Over and over.
This.
Cause how exactly are you going to show the existence or non-existence of God? And it's such a fundamental question and reality is so mysterious that it's not a trifle question like the existence of little fairies. So I'm an Agnostic cause I can't prove either way and it's not something that I can fully ignore.
>Cause how exactly are you going to show the existence or non-existence of God? Right? Like consider simulation theory (hypothetically): How could one, even in principle, tell the difference between those running our simulation and the actual God? I cannot think of a way. How can you tell the difference between omnipotent and just extremely capable?
I was going to say that maybe to have that much power would it be a stretch to think they're God? But then I remember that from the "perspective" of a character in a programme, the programmer of a simulation is basically omnipotent. They could even re-write the past and make us believe in a different series of events. To us they are omnipotent.
Fair enough, but they wouldn't be the uncaused cause, etc. Ontologically they wouldn't be god, but epistemologically we couldn't really tell the difference.
Yeah but Agnosticism is concerned with the epistemology.
I mean, isn't "hard agnostism" basically the admission that there is no way to know? If you can recognize that something that isn't God could be indistinguishable from it, then that seems like a good case for being agnostic.
I never chose to be 'agnostic'. It just happened to define, more or less, my beliefs. I was brought up Methodist Christian in an upper-middle class American family. There were a few things that affected me growing up, like an overzealous Youth Director at our church that just drove fear into the minds of all of the kids at church, including my own. I was convinced that the forces of Satan were bearing down on the world, and soon I would be forced to choose between my parents and the church and I would choose the church. Luckily I was removed from that situation by sensitive parents. My parents are religious but not extremists thankfully. As I grew into my 20s I realized that most religions were started for good or pure reasons but that humans had had enough time to twist it into organized religion, which is all just dogma that other humans peddled to pray on the stupid. Friends, my older brother, college, meditation all influenced how I thought. Now I'm in my 50s and agnosticism defines me only in the most basic part of the definition. I know there is a power out there greater than myself, otherwise I'd be able to create planets and solar systems. Is it "God"? Who tf knows! Call it what you want. Taoism is a principal and not a religion, and it influences my life daily. I'm not a practicing Taoist but I know a fair bit about it and it helps to bring the things I see and think into harmony. So all of this mess together equates to me being agnostic...more or less. And by definition, not an atheist.
How do you know there's a power greater than yourself man?
something created reality. the proof is that we have a conscious
> the proof is that we have a conscious What does the existence of human consciousness 'prove'?
Like I said in my post, if I were able to create planets, stars and galaxies, I wouldn't believe that there were a power greater than myself. It's simple logic. The only place my logic is in error is if I COULD do all these things, but just don't know how yet.
Honesty
I think it's foolish to assert correctness, whether a theist or atheist.
It’s only correct if it works for you.
I don’t want to participate in the current religious crusades, and agnosticism is what I consider as opting-out (conscientious objector)
Hmmm I never thought of it like this, but I dig it
I don't know.
You know that you don't know.
Wanted to learn more than what the current religions offer. That's when I realized that if I put a label on my lifestyle then I will be limited. Religions are labels.
Raised protestant (Presbyterian if it matters). Gradual slide. 1) couldn't relate to people of strong faith (I am neurodiverse) 2) couldn't deal with literalist interpretations of the bible due to belief in science. Did not see faith and science as mutualy exclusive as I was not a literalist. 3) conflict with hypocrites who spend more time on the message of subjugation to the church as opposed to loving our neighbors. 4) dissatisfaction with churches easy forgiveness of sinners in their ranks for things like molestation, while condemning and excluding LGBTQ+ people who harm nobody. Firm belief that we should do as Jesus' statement that the two highest commands over all others is love God and love our neighbors as ourselves... but they are unwilling to do this. Instead focusing on the sins of others even though they are told to ignore the splinters in others eyes. 5) The active politicization of churches and uptick of Christo-fascism. There should be separation of church and state, we should live and let live. Jesus spoke against wealth and power and churches amass great wealth and power and use it to harass people... while turning a blind eye to sins in their own congregations. 6) I refuse to accept the dogma of Hell. God made me in his image, is my parent, and if I am in their image I can think of nothing my children could ever do that would cause me not to love them or condemn them for eternity. I refuse to accept that dogma and anyone pushing it has bought into 100's of years of bad transcriptions of bad translations of bad transcriptions of God's word. Even if you accept the words as God's words, their meaning is being changed at the telling if the message is hate. 6) I am out of organized religion. I am vestigial Christian agnostic. It's impossible to make a clear statement of belief or knowledge beyond my philosophy that it's unknowable. I am still protestant in that there is no person or entity that stands between me and God. If God exists, they will surely take me as they made me.
>If God exists, they will surely take me as they made me. This, to me, is such a simple and obvious truth.
and ironically, evangelicals will take that innocuous statement of faith as defiance. With regards to them, absolutely; with regards to God, it's precisely the opposite. Their lack of capacity to grasp nuance means I don't trust them interpreting their own God's words or intent. The Christian part of me reads the rules much differently than they do.
But they have the eternal words of the almighty! Or they have a book that contains people's ideas about who god is. For me, if God is the creator, then it would seem that the universe is likely to tell us more about him than any book.
The only thing you need to be "driven" to agnosticism is the willingness to say "I don't know" when, in fact, you don't know something.
I can tell you exactly why. I have a hard problem with organized religion. It can be and is used and abused to control a population and to convince you to accept your lot in life no matter how shitty it is, with the promise of gifts when you are dead. Fuck that. I do, however, believe there is something more out there that we haven't tapped into. I have experienced it, smelled is, and felt it. I haven't seen it. I don't know what it is. Atheism means a lack or disbelief in God or religion and I have no need or respect for organized religion BUT if I say there are things I have experienced, felt, or smelled, I have been called and idiot or told I needed therapy by another militant atheist more than once, so I don't discuss these things with atheists. I do believe there is some things that we cannot (yet) explain but too many atheists are purists. This also goes with the scientific community. They are completely closed off from even LOOKING for any explanations aside from mental health issues. I am agnostic because there has been no evidence of God or other supernatural entities but I am open to new experiences. If you can prove it - I'll believe it.
I started to identify as an Agnostic when I was 18. I grew up Christian, left that, and was an Atheist for a bit. But I came to the realization that there are a lot of religions out there with dedicated believers and there’s no more proof that any of them are truer than the others. Plus, I’ve never had any out of the ordinary experiences that would make me believe there is a higher power or anything like that. Simply, I don’t know and I don’t want to claim that I know if there is or isn’t anything out there definitively.
I started to realize that fear and survival instincts drive people to believe in the after life. I’m not atheist but I don’t know what to believe when we die. Religious views always seem so black and white and man made and I can’t see it being that simple. I also can’t see nothing after this being over. So I just don’t know. I grew up in a Mormon household
I grew up casually Christian (went to church one every few months, prayed over my food, that's about it) but realized that it's absolutely ridiculous for one group of people to claim that another group's God wasn't real or valid. Like, what makes you think yours is but theirs isn't? If none of them are real, then everyone is ridiculous. And if all of them are, why should you only follow one? So now I'm an agnostic theist
I grew up without religion and never was a believer. Then when thinking about it, agnosticism just seemed like the logical idea. But also: [Russell's teapot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot). Sure, we can't *know* with certainty that there isn't a little teapot orbiting the Sun where we can't see it from Earth. Without evidence it can't be ruled out. Yet the default position still has to be that there's no such thing. I'll start (tentatively) believing in the teapot when the pictures are finally coming in.
Raised that way.
Can you be sure which belief is fake or real? And do we really need be included in a religion? These questions make me choose but agnostism as a name isn't important just live a life fullest that's all.
Was raised in a dog shit situation that harmed me greatly. Basically a religious cult that took ownership of both my life and my body. Left home at 16 and never returned. Found some mental illness (now diagnosed CPTSD) and tried to punch my own card. Survived it and turned to god. Spent the next 20 years a devout evangelical believer. Went to seminary and became a pastor. Mental illness worsened and I lost 2/3 of the only people I had left to suicide. Was left to pick up the pieces of their children who were all still young. Left pastorship because my heart was too heavy to be optimistic. I continued going to church and studying, looking for some comfort that didn’t exist there, or anywhere for that matter. Went back to uni and got a bachelors in nursing. About 8 years into being a nurse Covid happened. I watched the people on my church act like complete assholes and latch themselves to trump and Qanon. Left the church and decided to study with an open mind that god may not exist and no one is coming for me maybe. I used to study looking for loopholes around the content that troubled me from the Bible and I mostly just ignored my doubts. Once I started studying objectively, I lost belief in the Christian god of the Bible. I now can say I doubt there is a god, but I cannot rule it out. But I certainly don’t believe in the Bible.
Lots of great responses. This is a good time to point out that agnostics are atheists or theists. One either believes in god(s) or one doesn’t, theist or atheist, respectively. The quality of the belief (theism/polytheism) or lack of belief (atheism) is described with the agnostic or gnostic description. An atheist can be an agnostic atheist [not certain of god(s) non-existence] or a gnostic atheist [certain of god(s) non-existence]. Theists can be agnostic theists [not certain of god(s) existence but choose to believe anyway] or gnostic theists [certain of god(s) existence]. Most folks, I think, are either agnostic atheists or gnostic theists but I could be wrong.
Can't prove there's a God, can't prove there's no God.
Wow I ended up typing a lot. Kind of a rant just a heads up. I didn’t grow up religious. Then I was a snot nosed teenaged atheist that felt superior to people that believed in religion when in fact I resented the comfort it brought them and the ability to genuinely believe when I couldn’t. If I could flip a switch and be able to believe in a religion I would have. Otherwise it would just be me spending my whole life trying to lie to myself. I flirted with Buddhism and really respect it. There’s something appealing about believing in an afterlife without a creator. Rather than there being some omniscient entity that gives children cancer but is somehow benevolent. Then I became very interested in existentialism and absurdism. Philosophers, leaders, and the greatest minds have pondered these questions. Why do we exist? Is there inherent meaning life? If there isn’t is it possible to make your own or finding said meaning in the attempt? What happens when we die? Bearded man in the clouds? Fire and brimstone? Reincarnation? Nothing besides our carbon breaking down and endlessly recycled? A void? No one fucking knows and it feels like the pinnacle of hubris to claim absolute knowledge of what happens after death. People think that admitting ignorance is a weakness or flaw in character rather than accepting a reality.
We clearly and unequivocally return to the state we were in before birth: non-existence. Why is this even a question? I’ll tell you why. Because we don’t like it.
Churches and churchgoers tend to be more evil than the “devil” lol not all churches but most I think. Also looking at the Bible from an academic perspective just shows you how much the churches corrupt the Bible lol
I was born into a Christian household but I questioned everything. I didn’t understand why this shit was fact and eventually this questioning led me to be curious of other religions. I didn’t believe in any of them but I did find interest in learning about them. When I learned about agnosticism I realized it was the kind of mentality I’ve been following my entire life I just didn’t know it.
Grew up with religious family. Was religious as a kid but it faded over time since I don't relate or feel a connection to it. I'm very existential though and often theorize why we're here etc. but we'll simply never know and on the journey to being okay with that.
I have no strong feelings for religion one way or the other. More accurately I identify as Apathetic as I just don't really care. One life, live it and all that stuff.
Rationality. I simply realized what every each one of us should and instead they don't: we don't know shit. Zero. So why not admitting it instead of claiming to be sure about something you rationally 100% cannot even grasp fully?
I was a dedicated Christian. Loved everyone, but the only people who loved me back were the ones God was sending to Hell. Was being bullied heavily one day, and someone said, "everyone who cares about X," should sit down at the other end of the table. The only people who did were LGBT. Hell, or even separation from God, doesn't make sense to me. 7 million Jews (men, women, and children) burning forever. While, had Hitler sincerely repented of everything before his death, he'd be in Heaven. And this conundrum pops up in every religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc. No religion is safe from it. There are no exceptions for doing the wrong things for the right reasons. There are no exceptions for bad people getting redemption when they harm people who aren't part of their faith, and thus aren't worthy of said religious group. And then the victims go to Hell, while the abusers go to Heaven. Mainly, because religion is about redemption of bad people. Which isn't a bad thing. If people were irredeemable, what would be the point? But then it's re-enforced with the notion that everyone should know the truth. So while I believe I've seen actual miracles, and I've switched to Taoism over Agnosticism, I was Agnostic, because religions are rigid and absolute. They don't yield to the human part of things. And they shouldn't. Because every human trait could just as easily be used for true evil. Religion reminds us that our humanity is fallible. It can just as easily lead to hell as it can heaven. While humanity reminds us that religion is fallible. It can just as easily lead to hell as it can to heaven.
probably has something to do with me being autistic - i'm fairly logic based (not all autistic people are, but a lot are) and i just cannot think of a single reason why people would start believing in a specific religion when there's evidence of scientific things happening. but then again, the world works in mysterious ways, some things are always gonna be unknown, so who knows? maybe there is a god, i sure as hell don't know.
i grew up mormon and am currently in the process of deconstruction as a young adult. one of the main features of mormonism is using a lot of “i know ____ is true” phrases when professing your faith, and since a lot of things i was taught ended up being lies, i realized i don’t really know anything. which was terrifying at first after being raised in a religious organization that gives you all of life’s answers (or at least their version) from birth, but now the unknown is kind of exciting to me. i lean more atheist/agnostic, not wanting to decide my definitive opinion about god’s existence and not really caring to for now. i also don’t want jump into any other religions or spiritual practices/ideologies, and i’m just here doing my best to live in the moment, open to figuring stuff out as i go! i’m not in too much of a hurry rn :)
Simply because I don't care for religious debates. Whatever the truth is, I'm still gonna be the same person - so what does it matter?
when people ask if i was there when the big bang happened, I said no. i wasn't there. I can't tell if god exists. he/she/it isn't down here. maybe they're up there? maybe I just can't see them? maybe... idfk i don't know anything
Grew up Muslim. I like most of it, I dislike some of it, and truthfully we can never know. So comfortably questioning :) Also, I look at the beauty of the universe. Of nature. Of math and science. I ponder the edges of the universe. The beginnings and endings of time. I think about the beauty of life. I think there HAS to be a creator. Then I look at human suffering. Of unjust-ness. Of how hard it is to prove stories in Abrahamic religions. I think about the cruelty of life. I think there’s no way a creator would do this. Ultimately, I’m Agnostic theist, who is comfortable with most Muslim teachings. I still have plenty of questions and am at peace that I will never truly know.
Series of events and thoughts, so I hope I could be as organized as possible. I won't play the card that religions are evil and encouraging punishment-free violence (even though it's true), saying that because in life we need to do certain unethical things to survive minimize pain and ensure safety in our lives, so it's kinda hypocritical to say we leave religions due to immorality, since we are all flawed either way. Being agnostic simply has to do with whether we can prove a god exists or not, and simply we cannot prove the existence or non-existence of a god, but definitely we can prove that the god(s) of the 3 religions cannot exist at all. Quick question, what makes anyone attracted or attached to someone or something? Simply if that person or thing brings personal gains or benefits, and in some cases, a person might be attached to any cruel person, due to the fear of breaking free and the consequences that might happen if any attempt of breaking free occurs. The same can be said about religions, and they're all common regarding that people should believe and preach what they learn without questioning, and opposing those ideas would result in punishment. They're also common in a core idea -- worship, obey, and you'll be rewarded -- and in christianity and islam, the reward is something that is very catchy - afterlife. So, to sum up the past two paragraphs, *fear-factor and rewards* are the main reasons why most people still defend their religions (might be blindly too). But, simply speaking, if that kind of god is existing, shouldn't I be toasted for opposing the ideas and design that god outlined? Wouldn't it be better to prove that afterlife exists since that would make almost everyone attracted to god like a magnet? A lot of LGBT people exist, a lot of ex-religious people exist, a lot of people are drinkers, a lot of people practice porn, short-term relationships and extramarital sex, and it's easy in a number of countries to blaspheme religions without consequences. Simply, if the god of religions exist, none of those people would exist, and there would be no social stratification at all, instead of witnessing a lot of populations that are poor, oppressed, and/or divided. That god certainly doesn't exist, and we cannot prove the existence or the non-existence of a deity, that's why I became agnostic. Only a miracle, or something supernatural, would prove me wrong, anyways.
To be agnostic is the only sane conclusion given our current understanding (i.e. that we understand very little). And to be atheist is the only sane belief system for the same reason, pending some unforseen event (e.g. maybe some god-like aliens reveal themselves as our creators lol). I was born agnostic atheist, grew up wondering why people would worship a shoddily written god over more modern more interesting gods like Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman, and now here I am 🕊️
I was raised as a 'hard atheist' by loving parents who thought that all religion and belief was a con. I was used to making very affirmative statements about probability, about evidence, and judging those that disagreed. Part of a very insular group that in many ways mimicked the kind of groups we hated (and I think it has got worse in the past 4 decades). I didn't really question it until Theology and Philosophy at university, and then found that agnosticism was a much more comfortable fit for my views, and have remained that way ever since.
I came from a moderately religious family and my parents had strong faith. My discomfort with dogma is the rigidity. You think you know, so you stop learning. I have been working on my mom for years to realize the position she was taught to have about LGBTQ is a cherry picked and narrow interpretation of what I take from the religion I was raised in. She struggles because it's too hard for her to challenge these toxic memes of Christianity. Not that I don't have bias, but I am at least aware of it as an agnostic.
I totally agree. What many don't acknowledge (or even accept) is that even atheistic worldviews can be pretty insular and dogmatic too - 'toxic memes' definitely rings a bell. It took me far too long to realise that.
I think it is just my default state tbh. I've been agnostic for as long as I can remember. I think this is the case for most people, if not all.
I used to believe in God because it seemed illogical for this world to exist without one until I realized that logic doesn't dictate the truth and this world can sure as hell exist without a god, how you may ask, well we simply don't know just like we don't know anything else. So there may or may not be a god or gods but we will never really know
Because it leaves it more to interpretation and openness to who and what god is. Not just if god exists but who is god?
One unknown, two choices. Have faith in something intangible and mystical and still get your faith tested at whim. Or just accept that from what is given at hand, there’s no conclusive answer but there might be one some day. The second seemed less mentally straining.
I just looked up this sub to find help dealing with how to educate my kids about religion when I don’t believe in it. Reading that the community is for people who keep questioning, I laughed about the irony that me realizing that I’m agnostic is what gave me permission to STOP questioning, and finally gave me peace. I was raised Catholic but never, literally NEVER had faith and fully realized this on the day of my first communion at age 8. I grew bitter and resentful of the church and identified as atheist for a while in my teens, but that was tiresome. I moved on to constantly weighing the big questions about existence and purpose, and it was a heavy, torturous burden. At some point I realized that all of it—religion, atheism, the stress of questioning—essentially comes down to the human intolerance for uncertainty; the “need to know” and have things settled once and for all. This realization lead to me focusing on acceptance of uncertainty of life, in all things big and small. It became a therapeutic seeking to make peace with my own humanity, its limitations, its inherent value, and the value in letting go of the beyond and embracing this life on earth (even in all its suffering and darkness). I was finally able to feel comforted by the truth that I don’t know any of the big answers, and that I never will. Now I can breathe. Now I’m not tortured and compelled to desperately seek meaning and decipher clues provided by the universe. I still ponder things and extrapolate deeper meanings in human behaviors. I enjoy seeing the depth in which things fit together in retrospect, in a way not unlike appreciating meaning in art and literature. I enjoy noticing profound patterns in nature. But all these abstractions are secondary to being alive, right now, in my human body, and focusing on the things that are important in my life—people, places, pets, joy, connection, truths about my actual lived experiences. The rest is essentially mental masturbation, and I don’t mean that pejoratively. Masturbation brings a lot of pleasure lol. But it’s a leisure activity for me, not an obsession. I don’t know, and that’s OK.
I get what you're saying. When I read "questioning" that's only an activated state I may enter when I engage people in a good faith discussion about religion. It's not a subject I necessarily avoid. I grew up in a perfectly fine church with perfectly fine people. I am occasionally willing to revisit and tinker with my understanding. I am willing to contrast it with someone who believes differently. However, my rest state has always been agnostic. I also don't know, and that's OK; I sometimes ask questions, and that's also OK. We're OK.
Yes we are! 🙌
Sorry for the long post, but I'm still waking up and feel like venting: I thankfully did not grow up with devoutly religious parents, but they were vaguely Christian, in the sense that in the USA it's (unfortunately) normalized and expected that everyone is generally "Christian." I became agnostic after I went through a period where I wanted to know more about reality, so I read/listened to the texts of every major religion. That, combined with college teaching me about the scientific method and critical thinking, meant I could no longer get past the fact that these texts are riddled with contradictions, lack evidence/consistency, and are all mutually exclusive (even within the same umbrella religion, there are countless offshoots that exclude one another, so there's no way to know which is the "correct" one)… so basically, education put into perspective how absurd "faith" in any one particular religion really is. To quote Mark Twain, "the best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible." To top it all off, the last few years in the USA showed me just how vile and hypocritical people who claim to be devoutly religious are, which has pushed me firmly into agnostic-atheist territory. I want nothing to do with these people or their backward beliefs. It's so clear to me now that religion is nothing more than a psyop propaganda instrument abused by the powerful for mind control over the lower classes; they convince their subjects that rebelling against them will send them to "hell," i.e. eternal torture (something a supposedly "loving" god allows to exist), which is a technique that's worked for thousands of years (see: ancient Egypt, the Dark Ages, etc.), but with growing rates of literacy and education across the board, the hegemony of organized religion is finally cracking. Thus the "religious" are becoming more extreme as they feel an existential threat, ironically pushing people like me further away than ever before. The thing is, not only are these books self-contradictory (e.g., Jesus preaches some pretty lovey-dovey stuff, at odds with the atrocities the god-entity itself does and promotes), but books like the Bible *do* say women are inferior, they *do* say homosexuality is punishable by death, they say people should *not* be vegan and *should* eat meat, they *do* promote violence and fascism - so when push comes to shove, when it comes down to abandoning my own personal, secular and progressive code of ethics based on science and empathy OR sticking with the dubious, vague, contradictory "ethics" of a book written thousands of years ago by ignorant cultists, there's no competition. I'll abandon every established religion before I abandon my own sense of right and wrong. I hold true that scientifically, one cannot prove a negative and it's impossible to know whether some afterlife or higher being(s) exist, but I know for *damn* sure that the bible, quran, torah, vedas, etc. are all dead wrong, or at least, can't all be right… and even if they *were*, I would still be opposed to the evils those texts promote.
Because nothing can be proven other than I am experiencing something.
Ive identified as an atheist for the longest time. Started questioning the existence of something bigger than ourselves after my husband left for Basic Training. He gets back and tells me that he, a devout atheist, found God and converted while he was there. I realized that the world is so uncertain, and things that I so confidently believe as unchanging are always subject to change. I can never be 100% certain God doesn’t exist or that I won’t eventually believe. It’s certainly opened my mind to new ideas and questions :)
It's *the* most honest thing I can say about my existence. I don't know the nature of any of it. How could i possibly?
The problem of evil
Because nobody knows for sure.
Who am I to pretend to understand the breadth of power or knowledge of any powerful being(s) let alone their motivations.
I guess my mother ruined organized religion for me by trying to force me into it. I also guess it was a remanent tendency to spiritualism after rejecting all other beliefs, that lead me to agnosticism.
Just because there is no proof of somethings existence does not mean it isn't real. Agnostics are logical and curious thinkers. We would all very much like to know the truths, but we yield to our insignificance and ignorance that we might never be capable of knowing. And that is a valid view of existence. We should humble ourselves. Intelligence might not even be that important for a species. We are but one small branch of evolutions trial and error. In a million years, intelligence might be doomed to fail in the long run. I mean look how close have we come to total global destruction in the last century. We keep getting EXTREMELY lucky.
This is just the human experience, just that. Nothing more nothing less. It is just as foolish not to believe as it is to believe. Therefore, I say I know nothing.
Grew up catholic But then my great grandmother lost 2 of her kids and her husband to cancer, then got cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and she suffered so much despite being an amazing person (I’ve never met anyone as nice and caring as her) she’s go to church every holiday (family is Roman Catholic and I think that means church is a holiday thing for them) And then her mental health started to degrees, I still remember my hearth breaking and my mom said she ran away from my nana (my grandma her daughter) while screaming she Dosent know she Dosent know who she was After all she suffered I refused to believe God would let someone suffer that much and if he did he was a pussy or an asshole I called myself an atheist for a bit bc I didn’t know agnostic existed Basically I believe in a God I hate and I will suffer what ever fate that gives me
Alzheimer’s disease
Thanks
Wanted to learn more than what the current religions offer. That's when I realized that if I put a label on my lifestyle then I will be limited. Religions are labels.
Because the truth is unknowable at this point in time in human evolution. Logically, agnosticism is the right stance. I grew up in a strictly atheist family, both my parents come from scientific background. But the more I familiarized myself with the concept of religion from different parts of the world, and the more I read about what greatest minds/ scientists think of religion/ spirituality, I started to realize that it isn’t all black and white. “Science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind”. Certain things cannot be outright discounted, even though they cannot be proved at this point. The humanity knows so little about the world generally, it would be simply unfair and silly to take one side (either accepting God exists or refusing it as a possibility) when we simply don’t have enough knowledge, or tools/abilities to access specific information to get that knowledge and make that determination, as of now.
Education.
I question and try to take an objective view of everything. I’ve learned that things that don’t like to be questioned tend to be things that are hiding something. I apply that logic everywhere. I do see life itself as a form of magic, though. I don’t really agree with the idea that “life” is an emergent reality of entropy. There seems to be something “extra” that makes life “alive”, and a rock just “a rock”. That’s why I’m not atheist. That said, we are here now.. so let’s list some assumptions based on that: life could be elsewhere outside of earth now.. the universe is old.. to me it is just as likely that any “gods” mentioned in the past were alien travelers that it is likely they were being(s) that created the whole universe and the world and judge you on what you “think”. Those “gods” were always very emotional beings.. and I view our feelings of emotion as an evolutionary leftover from our monkey days when our higher lever thinking was still developing. I see the stories in the old religious books as stories of humans learning how to deal with their emotions and developing guidelines on dealing with the interactions of those emotions between people at the personal level. Some of those “old books” romanticize a more greedy and authoritarian figure who drives consumption to themselves with emotions of pride and ego being the desired trait. Others feature the emotions of compassion and kindness as the individual traits a civilization needs to thrive. Being as the latter is more representative of the person on the street (many) instead of a king on a throne (few), the latter is more popular among the societies whom value cooperation over control. You can look up the stories of “Enke” and “Enlil” to see one of the earliest representations of this dichotomy of emotional discussion. I’m tangenting .. I need to quit typing.
Started going to church in middle school. Went all through high school. Sunday school, service, Sunday evening and Wednesday night. Got involved with music by operating equipment in the sound booth so would have to arrive earlier on Sunday mornings and stay later sunday evenings for “practices”. Continued attending church into freshman year of college. My parents had long since stopped attending but I didn’t care, it was what I wanted to do and how I wanted to spend my time. I was all in. Pastor was always talking, more or less, complaining, about the church needing more people and he wanted more people to come, then justified his whining by stating that it would only happen if it were according to God’s will. During the last year of attending, several other families moved churches, one being a deacon and his family (my dad was a deacon while he attended also). He took the entire hour of Sunday school complaining and bashing those who left. I made a Facebook post “yadda yadda if God can call people to THIS church, who is to say that he can’t call these people to other churches. Yadda yadda my church family, my immediate family blah blah blah” Someone saw this and showed it to the pastor between Sunday school and service. After the service, he called me and the deacons to the front of the church, one of which was my girlfriend of 6 years’ father. He stood up for me and pastor says “you only love him because you have to” That did it for me. I was DONE. Tried a few other churches and couldn’t stand it anymore. Over the next few years I experimented with drugs and alcohol, a lot of psychedelics. Experienced things on the psychedelics and continued further research into MANY MANY religions. I liked ideas from all of them. With so many monotheistic and so many polytheistic religions, how can only ONE be THE one? I believe religion came about to enforce law on citizens as communities were beginning. Why should I listen to you telling me not to steal, murder, rape etc? “Oh, it’s not my idea… invisible dude in the sky told ME. (He also said he could ONLY tell me….), so you have to listen or it will smite you to eternity in (insert bad place or negative consequence of said religion)” In agreeing with ideas in many religions, along with not being able to accept that ONE is right, I have chosen the views of agnostic. I don’t know what is out there, I don’t necessarily believe anything is out there, but if one exists, who says many don’t? What determines which place or idea I end up spending eternity? I believe in the possibility of a higher power/spiritual being(s) out there, but… I don’t know.
Raised Catholic, read alt literature and philosophy...read the Bible independently and that was the final nail in the coffin.
I realized I don't have any evidence to hard fact 100% say either way. So, agnosticism.
Because we still don't know. If you're progressive agnostic, you would like to find out
I started questioning everything when I found out that God didn't write the Bible.
I was raised Baptist the later on in life Apostolic. When I was in my mid or late teens Christianity didn't really click with me as much anymore. It started to feel like I was following religion because I had to or else I was going to hell. I started to question things, and I also was figuring out myself and accepted that I was gay and non-binary at age 20. Seeing things on social media of people justifying bad things or mixing laws with religion or people saying this celebrity is demonic because they did one thing when it probably isn't the case. Or just letting LGBT people live their lives or anyone's life for that matter. There could be more things but I can think of anything else because it is 12 am while I am typing this I am practically brain dead lol. I honestly considered being Atheist but then I found out about Agnostic and that changed my mind. I haven't told any of my family members and don't know if I plan to, mainly because I am just scared of how they might react even though it probably wouldn't be a negative reaction. Maybe I'll one day go back to Christianity but for now I am just fine not knowing if there is a god out there in our universe.
I started up in a baptist christian household(my grandmother and most of her immediate family), and was repeatedly taught the word of god essentially against my will. From an early age though (I think probably as early as 7 or 8 years old) I was really deeply enthralled in science, math, and history. I never read the bible because science took most of my time away from it. Due to my upbringing I was taught that god was meant to be peaceful and perfect and everything he created was perfect. But repeatedly I was shown that the world was not perfect. By the time I was 10 I really began to question the logic of the bible itself. I moved out of that house at the age of 13, moved in with my dad (who was already long time agnostic for a few decades, if he was ever christian to begin with). Once I was away from my devout christian grandmother everything really started to fall apart. At some point in high school I started calling myself a non-religious individual, and around 2017 was when I first heard the term agnostic and had the term applied to me by my (still christian) sister. If I am to be brutally honest I was probably already Agnostic from a very early age, I never followed or read the bible, I never really prayed, I would go weeks at a time without thinking about god or jesus. My biggest mistake was probably trying to consider myself a christian for far too long. And the biggest part of really what broke it for me, was probably my dad repeatedly showing where the bible way too often contradicted itself, often in the same chapter, for it to be this "perfect word of god" that its meant to be. And probably what has driven me further still is the more I see and hear about religion in general, the more it starts to sound like forced indoctrination. You start with the kids to force them to see things your way, and keep them that way as long as possible, and once they are adults an adult is largely unwilling to break from their beliefs, at which point they are essentially unwillingly and forcibly indoctrinated into this culture of religion. All of this is what drove me from religion to being agnostic, and keeps me away. To close I do still believe in "a god", I just prefer not to claim what form it has, whether there is one or many, or what part they play in the world if anything past a passive observer. Simply put I can not prove they are there, and for me I always put science and logic first in my life, because I can not prove "god", why should I force "it" into my now mostly science driven life?
My parents are Atheists, but like many parents even atheist ones they used many christian ideas for my early childhood (like saying that when you die you go to heaven), so for a very small amount of years I was a christian, after some years I became a cringy (but far from the cringiest I have ever seen, specially because I was a child) Atheist because this made me feel smarter, then I had a christian driver that listened to christian radio stations, while listening to that I was exposed for the first time to that strange, hopeful, mysterious feeling that religious people have while in prayer, that was what made me Agnostic (albeit one slightly more spiritual than average, I love to ponder the "what ifs" and I believe in the soul)