A Bit About Agnosticism Trivia Quiz

Answer: I don't know if there's a God

The best way to describe what it means to be agnostic is to answer the question "Does God exist?" with the answer "I don't know". The existence of God, or the divine, or the supernatural, cannot be known for certain. Unless there is a scientific proof of these things, one cannot know for sure.

Answer: Thomas Henry Huxley

In 1869 Thomas Henry Huxley said, "It simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that which he has no scientific grounds for professing to know or believe." He didn't create the idea of agnosticism, but did come up with the term to describe that way of thinking.

There are agnostic ideas prevalent throughout history. A 5th century BCE Greek philosopher named Protagoras expressed agnostic thoughts about whether Gods existed. A 5th century BCE Indian philosopher named Sanjaya Belatthaputta expressed agnostic thoughts about the existence of an afterlife.

Answer: Apathetic

There are many types of agnosticism. Here are three examples. Strong agnosticism means that it is absolutely unknowable whether there is a God or not. Weak agnosticism means there is a chance that God exists, with evidence. Apathetic agnosticism means there is no God nor is there any interest in the subject on the part of the apathetic agnostic.

Answer: Bertrand Russell

"Why I Am Not A Christian" is an essay written by Bertrand Russell. It was originally a talk given in 1927 for the British National Secular Society. In it, he speaks about Christian theology, makes logical arguments about God's existence and speaks about his doubts as to whether Jesus Christ existed. He also speaks about the use of fear in religion and the moral questions that raises.

Answer: Robert G. Ingersoll

Ingersoll has been referred to as the 'Great Agnostic' and was a prominent speaker and lawyer in the United States. In his 1896 speech he asks a number of questions about the existence of God, answering that he simply does not know. Prior to that lecture, he had also spoken on the difference between agnosticism and atheism; in his view, there are no differences as they both do not know if there is a God and both do not believe in the existence of God.

Answer: Ignosticism

There are some very closely tied terms with agnosticism. One of them is ignosticism, which was coined in 1964 by a rabbi named Sherwin Wine. Whereby agnostics don't know for sure if God exists, ignostics suggest that God needs to be defined before the question of existence can even be raised.

Some philosophers believe ignosticism to be a distinct belief system while others, such as secular humanist Paul Kurtz, believe they are compatible views.

Answer: Australia

It is a bit tricky to drill down exactly how many people identify as being agnostic throughout the world, as most surveys lump agnosticism into the non-religious group. With that in mind, in Australia in 2011, 22% of the population replied as being non-religious.

A 2010 Encyclopędia Britannica survey found that almost ten percent of the world's population considered themselves as having no religion. A 2014 survey by Pew Religious Landscape broke it down a bit further and found that four percent of the population of the United States responded as agnostic.

Answer: Atheism

Agnosticism comes under a fair bit of criticism. Theistic critics argue that people can only live as if God either does exist or doesn't, not the in between of not knowing. Prominent atheist Richard Dawkins has called agnostics fence-sitters. He's named two types of agnostics. One is a 'Temporary Agnostic in Practice' (TAP) and the other is a 'Permanent Agnostic in Principle' (PAP).

A TAP believes that at the moment, we don't have enough information to answer the question as to whether God exists but science might help us answer that question at some point.

A PAP believes we can't answer the question because it is outside the realm of science. Dawkins believes that the existence of God is a scientific question and that the likelihood of God's existence is very improbable.

Answer: Creation

The "Rig Veda" is an ancient Indian collection of hymns and the tenth chapter of the "Rig Veda" is called the "Nasadiya Sukta" (or Creation Hymn). In that chapter, the question of how the universe and Gods were created is looked at from an agnostic point of view.

In verse form, the question about who created the universe, when it was created and how it was created are all asked. The answer to all of these questions is "who knows"?

Answer: All intelligent Christianity

Bell was a cultural commentator, Episcopal priest, and author. In "Beyond Agnosticism: A Book for Tired Mechanists" he wrote about the necessity of agnosticism as a way to question the status quo and known truths of the age. He believed agnosticism to be temporary and could lead to theism as an outcome. The other possible outcome was scientific materialism.