Agnosticism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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- A person who holds to a form of agnosticism, especially uncertainty of the existence of a deity.
Etymology
First attested in 1870; coined by Thomas Huxley. Either from (agnōstos) "ignorant" or a- + gnostic. Deriving (either way) from (a-) "not" + (gignōskō) "I know".
"Agnostic" was introduced by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869 to describe his philosophy which rejects Gnosticism, by which he meant not simply the early 1st millennium religious group, but all claims to spiritual or mystical knowledge. This is not the same as the trivial interpretation of the word, and carries a more negative implication for religion than that trivial interpretation.
Early Christian church leaders used the Greek word gnosis (knowledge) to describe "spiritual knowledge." Agnosticism is not to be confused with religious views opposing the doctrine of gnosis and Gnosticism—these are religious concepts that are not generally related to agnosticism. Huxley used the term in a broad sense.
In recent years, use of the word to mean "not knowable" is apparent in scientific literature in psychology and neuroscience, and with a meaning close to "independent", in technical and marketing literature, e.g. "platform agnostic" or "hardware agnostic".
See also
