You are not an agnostic. You're an Ignostic.

A lot of people try to squirm their way out of saying "I'm an atheist". Intelligent or stupid nobody wants to be called an atheist. Just look at Neil Degrasse Tyson in this video:


Tyson brings up a valid point: When people hear "atheist" they judge you and stop listening to anything valid you might say. "If you don't believe what I believe, fuck off."

This is a horrible feeling and it's not the way to have a conversation. Tyson says "Why does the word atheist even exist? We don't have a word for non-skiers!"

This is true. If you had never heard of nor seen skis and someone said "Up at Lake Tahoe you can traverse down mountains with lengths of wood strapped to your feet" you might not "believe" them.

Luckily, skis are tangible and you don't have to "believe" in their existence. You can use the "knowledge" of your remembering seeing skis and say "I KNOW skis exist."

God is not tangible. God means a lot of things to a lot of people but if you look at religions across the globe God is some sort of omnipotent, all-knowing, supernatural being worthy of being worshiped.

With God there is "belief" and "knowledge". Being asked if you believe in god is completely different from being asked if you know of god's existence.

Every person is either an atheist or a theist. An atheist does not BELIEVE in god(s). A theist does BELIEVE in god(s).

As Neil Degrasse Tyson points out Thomas Henry Huxley further characterized the belief or non belief of God by leaving the sphere of BELIEF and looking at the sphere of KNOWLEDGE. Huxley wanted to reject all claims of spiritual knowledge and took the Greek word "gnosis", that was used heavily by early Christians in their attempts to solidify the existence of Jesus Christ, and put an "a" in front of it to mean "without knowledge" - agnosticism - Rejecting spiritual KNOWLEDGE of God, not BELIEF of God.

Gnostic is to KNOW there is a god(s). Agnostic is to not KNOW whether there is a god(s).

So, A gnostic theist not only believes in god(s) he/she knows god(s) exists.

An agnostic theist believes in god(s) but can say that he/she does not know for certain.

A gnostic atheist does not believe in god(s) and knows that no god(s) exist(s).

An agnostic atheist does not believe in god(s) but also does not know whether god(s) do not exist.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is eloquent in his delivery but is sidestepping the argument/debate between Belief and Knowledge of God. There is a word for what Tyson is describing = Ignostic. Ignosticism is the view that the word "God" must first be defined before the existence of God can be argued. If no such definition can be agreed upon than the debate over the existence of such a being/deity is empirically untestable and therefore meaningless.

I personally believe and have knowledge through the countless fantastical books ever written that the human imagination is one of the most compelling tools on this planet.

We write and tell the most amazing stories and somewhere a long time ago somebody came up with a great story and it went viral. The story was about a never-before-heard-of being called "God". Ever since then it's been re-written over and over and here we are. When I think of the power of the human imagination I am reminded that I am a true gnostic atheist.

 I know it's not a lot of proof but the same way someone can look at a holy book and say "KNOWLEDGE!" I can look at the same book and say "IMAGINATION!" So, technically we're both right. It's just the atheist always looks like the asshole. Maybe if I had a congregation to hide behind I wouldn't feel so bad. I'll see you down at the docks.