To understand agnosticism, it can be helpful to learn a bit more about its history. It has been used in a variety of ways, not all of which are entirely compatible. They may be similar, but there enough differences that there can be some confusion.
Webster's International Dictionary of the English Language, 1903. Comprising the issues of 1864, 1879, and 1884.
- agnosticism: That doctrine which, professing ignorance, neither affirms nor denies. Specifically: (Theol.) The doctrine that the exisence of a personal Deity, an unseen world, etc., can be neither proved nor disproved, because of the necessary limits of the human mind (as sometimes charged upon Hamilton or Mansel), or because of the insufficience of the evidence furnished by psychical and physical data, to warrant a positive conclusion (as taught by the school of Herbert Spencer) - opposed alike to dogmatic skepticism and to dogmatic theism.
This definition is close to that of Thomas Henry Huxley who coined the term. Nevertheless, there are a couple of fundamental differences — in particular, Huxley conceived of agonsticism as describing a methodology, a way of approaching the world. Here we already see it described as a doctrine, something Huxley took pains to deny.
The New Century Dictionary, 1927.
- agnostic [Gr. agnostos, unknown, unknowable, (a priv. + gignosko, know.] One who holds that the ultimate cause (God) and the essential nature of things are unknown or unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
This is a simple definition, mirroring the way it would eventually be understood by most people. It does not describe agnosicism according to the common misunderstanding as a "third way" between atheism and theism.
Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1942.
- agnostic [Gr. agnostos, unknowing, unknown, from a, priv. and gignosko, knowing. Same root as know] One of those persons who disclaim any knowledge of God or of the origin of the universe or of anything but material phenomena, holding that with regard to such matters nothing can be known.
Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary, 1943.
- agnosticism [Gr. agnostos, unknowing, unknown, from a, priv. and gignosko, knowing.] In theology, the doctrine that God is unknown and unknowable; because God has not revealed himself to man; because finite mind cannot comprehend God; because Absolute God cannot come into intimacy nor make himself known to finite mind. In philosophy, the doctrine that First Cause and the essential nature of things are unknowable to man; that it is impossible to know the existence of the human soul and Ultimate Cause, or to prove or disprove it.
- By agnosticism, I understand a theory of things which abstains from either affirming or denying the existence of God; all it undertakes to affirm is, that , upon existing evidence, the being of God is unknown. - G.J. Romanes.
