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How Agnostic Differs From Atheist
Atheist and agnostic appear in the same contexts but are distinct in meaning. Atheist refers to someone who does not believe in the existence of a god or any gods. Agnostic has two relevant meanings: it can refer to someone who holds the view that any ultimate reality, such as God, is unknown and probably unknowable, or it can refer to someone who is not committed to believing in either the existence or nonexistence of God or a god.
Agnostic first appeared in print in 1869 (it was possibly coined by the English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley), and was formed from the Greek agnōstos, meaning "unknown, unknowable." Atheist came to English from the French athéisme. Although both words share the prefix a-, meaning "without," the main body of each word is quite different. Agnostic ultimately comes from the Greek root gignōskein, meaning "know" (also the source of such words as know and prognosis). Atheist shares the root theo, meaning "god," with such words as theology and theism.
Examples of agnostic in a Sentence
Bernard Lewis, Islam in History, 1993
Supporters of education vouchers … will love what Norman Macrae has to say on the subject. Teachers' unions and other opponents of vouchers … will deplore it. Voucher agnostics (and I include myself) might find that the proposal not only answers most doubts but also makes sense on issues they've never much thought about.
—William Raspberry, Springfield (Massachusetts) Union, 14 Aug. 1987
I call myself an agnostic. I do not really have any faith, any coherent religious faith, and yet the one thing in my life that I feel passionate and evangelical about is poetry.
—Maxine Kumin, "An Interview at Interlochen," 1977,
in To Make a Prairie, 1979
Adjective
Cladistics classifies organisms in nested hierarchies based exclusively on their order of branching. (I should say that I am quite agnostic about this theory, so I do not write as a shill.)
—Stephen Jay Gould, Natural History, March 1995
The composition comes alive in stanzas V and VI. This is the dark night. I hoped my readers would remember John of the Cross's poem. My night is not gracious, but secular, puritan, and agnostic. An existentialist night.
—Robert Lowell, Collected Prose, 1987
… I thought that by the time I was past thirty-five—at the very least agnostic and surely swept by the bleak winds of existentialism—I had abandoned the Presbyterian precepts of my childhood.
—William Styron, This Quiet Dust and Other Writings, 1982
Maya Richard-Craven, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
The community is now composed of nones, agnostics and disillusioned former members of megachurches.
—Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY, 2 Sep. 2024
Maya Richard-Craven, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
The sitcom, which stars Adam Brody (who is Jewish) as a character named Noah and Kristen Bell as Joanne, tracks the budding romance of a modern rabbi and an agnostic podcaster.
—Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 1 Oct. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Agnostic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agnostic. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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