agnostic
IPA: ægnˈɑstɪk
noun
- A person who holds to a form of agnosticism, especially uncertainty of the existence of a deity.
adjective
- Of or relating to agnosticism or its adherents.
- Doubtful or uncertain about the existence or demonstrability of God or other deity.
- (informal, usually with a prepositional phrase) Having no firmly held opinions on something.
- (computing, of a software component etc.) Unaware or noncommittal regarding the specific nature of the components or input with which it interacts.
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Examples of "agnostic" in Sentences
- The term agnostic talks about the existence of God being unknown or unknowable.
- Considering his substantial differences with Spencer, why didn't Huxley do more to intervene over what he saw as misuse of the term agnostic?
- I don't prefer the term agnostic because agnosticism is often used as a weak term that means I'm not sure if the guy with the beard on the cloud exists or doesn't exist.
- It took Huxley a full two decades to respond to his friend's adjustment of his term agnostic, but when he did respond he tried to put Spencer right on at least one key point about the risks of mythologizing the unknowable, of turning it into a kind of negative Absolute.
- Instead, like many other agnostics at the time -- including Leslie Stephen, George Eliot, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley who coined the term agnostic three decades earlier, in 1869 -- he thought belief should rest on evidence, not faith, but also that evidence itself was in some key instances wanting.
- To those who've forgotten that the man who coined the term agnostic was also Darwin's self-appointed "bulldog," fiercely defending his work and discovery against the jibes of a derisive, behind-the-times Church of England, it's worth remembering that Huxley in turn criticized Spencer for not only making agnosticism require a static, permanent doubt, but also for failing to underline some of the worst social consequences of religion.
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