Webster's Unabridged Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1957.
- agnostic: One who, while he does not deny the existence of God, believes there is no proof of a Supreme Being; sometimes confused with atheist.
- agnosticism: 1. The doctrine that nothing is known or knowable of the origin or nature of the universe or its creator, except the physical manifestations of phenomena, neither accepting nor rejecting a Deity with supernatural power. 2. Any doctrine which maintains that matters generally accepted as knowledge are problematical, since all are related and trace to a common unknown source.
This definition of agnosticism acknoweldges that it can, be applied to a wider range of questions than the existence of God. Although most uses of the term are limited to theological matters, it is true that we see it used with mundane issues - thus, one might say "I'm agnostic on that."
Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictgionary, 1980.
- agnosticism: The doctrine and philosophical theory that man cannot know God, first truths, or anything beyond material phenomena.
Oxford English Dictionary.
- agnostic: (from Greek agnostos, "unknowing, unknown, unknowable") One who holds that the existence of anything beyond and behind material phenomena is unknown and, so far as can be judged, unknowable, and especially that a First Cause and an unseen world are subjects of which we know nothing.
- (Suggested by Prof. Huxley at a party held previous to the formation of the now defunct Metaphysical Society, at Mr. James Knowles's house on Chapham Common, one evening in 1869, in my hearing. He took it from St. Paul's mention of the altar to 'the Unknown God.' R.H. Hutton in letter 13 May 1881)
This recent definition of agnosticism takes the unusual step of adding the idea that agnostics are methodological materialists. They are not metaphysical materialists, which would entail denying the existence of anything beyond material phenomena. Instead, they are methodological materialists, which means that while they accept the possible existence of something beyond material phenomena, such things are not knowable and perhaps not worth believing in.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged.
- agnostic: (from Greek agnostos, "unknown, unknowable, not knowing) one who professes agnosticism; broadly: one who maintains a continuing doubt about the existence or knowability of a god or any ultimates (... came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the gnostic of church history who professed to know so much - T. H. Huxley)
- agnosticism: 1a: the doctrine that the existence or nature of any ultimate reality is unknown and probbly unknowable or that any knowledge about matters of ultimate concern is impossible or improbable; specifically: the doctrine that God or any first cause is unknown and probably unknowable. b: a doctrine affirming that the existence of a god is possible but denying that there are any sufficient reasons for holding either that he does or does not exist.
