Against Agnosticism

Agnosticism in a highly secularized world has becoming an intellectual fashion. Organized religions still remain to be an immovable object, standing as monumental image of a frozen time with beliefs so enduring to address human's basic instinct to rely to an external being for spiritual guidance, to reveal the path forward for those whose minds are strained from interpreting the world that is becoming more and more complex each day. Belief is the anchor that grounds man. It becomes a requirement for survival in the face of utter uncertainty. Belief creates a space where an unwavering faith can exist.

The world as it is has been consistent in its attempts to disprove the existence of a higher being by eliminating the spaces where it is needed. "God is dead!" as Nietzsche proclaims as we have killed Him with industrialization. God was "killed" by the machines we've built. We have blurred the existence of the heavens with the smoke and steam of progress. We have severed our connection with nature with technology, trading oracles, nymphs, and spirits to movements of data in the air. This alienation is brought by our own undoing.

In turn, disbelief has also been in the air. Agnosticism has become more and more appealing due to the ever-growing responsibilities our current society has been offloading to the individual. This disbelief in the form of agnosticism has become a sign of spiritual resignation. Throwing in the towel for spiritual growth because of the growing uncertainty in the world. There is no denial that God has ceased to exist but a choice to stop caring about its existence.

Perhaps if we take it for its philosophical definition within epistemology as defining the limits of knowledge, precisely that knowing everything is beyond our capabilities, where everything is where God resides, is still a stance that can hold up because it is only a recognition of our own limitations as humans. There is no burden of proof to bear. Epistemological agnosticism opens the spaces for belief for a higher being because this only concerns our cognitive limitations. The existence of a higher being is likely, only that it is impossible for us to fully grasp the entire understanding of it. But this changes when agnosticism is applied to a personal theology.

If we divide agnosticism between epistemology and theology, we can find that:

• Epistemological Agnosticism and Belief: Here, the focus is on the limits of human knowledge. When someone maintains this epistemological stance, they can still entertain personal beliefs about God within those acknowledged limitations.

  • Following Kant, "I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith alone." (Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, 1783);

  • And Russell, who was an avowed atheist later in life but had a more nuanced view of God's existence earlier on, articulated the problem of not knowing whether God exists:
    "I do not myself believe that any definite answer can be given to the question 'Does God exist?' because I think it is based on an illusion. But if I were asked to state what I understand by the word 'God', I should say that I understand by it a limiting concept which we use to denote the maximum conceivable degree of all those qualities which we value most in our universe." (The Value of Philosophy, 1931)

• Theological Agnosticism: The emphasis here is not necessarily on the limits of knowledge but rather on a refusal to make definitive claims or engage in debates about God's existence for various reasons. This form tends to be more tied to how one constructs personal spiritual identity and engages (or disengages) with discussions on divinity.

  • The philosopher who most directly addressed agnosticism about God's existence is probably William Kingdon Clifford, a British philosopher:
    "It is agreed that the question whether this world has been created, or, on the other hand, has existed eternally, can by no means be decided by reason." (Lucifer and Psyche, 1879);
  • The term "agnosticism" itself was coined by T.H. Huxley in response to Darwin's theory of evolution, highlighting a more existential or theological form of doubt:
    "Agnosticism simply points out that, at present, we do not possess any direct evidence of design; and on this ground it claims that the traditional argument from design, which infers the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing Creator from the complexity of nature, is invalid." (The Method of Hypothesis, Science and Materialism, 1871)

Agnosticism in this age is a narrow-sightedness of the spirit. It is to say that one does not have the will to take the risk of what makes it worthwhile to be human. It is wallowing in the skepticism, furthering oneself into the lakes of uncertainty. It cannot be a middle-ground. It can only be a temporary state of being, which is slight reminiscent of nihilism. Agnosticism is an active refusal to use one's imagination: a crucial tool for improvement, in creating visions, in visualizing a better state of one's own relationship with the world. Choosing to remain an agnostic, and also a nihilist in this sense, is a disrespect to one's own human nature. It is the deprivation of one's own potential, to stop interpreting the world as one's own personal project. It is a misunderstanding of happiness, fulfillment, and the realization of one's soul. This is to trade the feeling of earned and temporary experience of the sublime for the certainty of nothingness. It is a refusal to surrender the self.

Not being able to understand a higher being is the baseline. We do not start from unknowing. The attempts to understand the divine, the ineffable sacred parts of the world, is where knowing begins. To understand and to explain is not the end-goal but to know and experience the divine is a type of fullness of the soul that closes the circle of our being. Our existence is nothing but a loop. Agnosticism breaks that loop towards a misguided belief, depriving oneself of the fullness of the self. Belief in a higher being does not always mean a subscription to any form of religion. It is always a process that is in pursuit of a higher cause that is bigger than the self. If there's anything, agnosticism must be the temporary spiritual state that can reawaken one's vision towards the revelation of a higher being, wherever in the world they may find it.