Can anyone tell me if there is a difference between the following; atheist,agnostic,pagan and animist?

Anonymous2007-09-14T06:41:57Z

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yes there are differences.

Why don't you just google the terms or use www.wikipedia.com ? you will find much better definitions of each term there than anyone will have room to post on here.

anyway, here are some (basic)definitions for you. hope this helps! Use the links to find out more info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist
atheism is the absence of belief in deities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic
the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims...is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently unknowable due to the nature of subjective experience

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagan
a broad set of spiritual or cultic practices or beliefs of any folk religion, and of historical and contemporary polytheistic religions in particular

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animist
animism is the belief that souls inhabit all or most objects; it attributes personalized souls to animals, vegetables, and minerals

it is possible to be a combination of these since they are not mutually exclusive (e.g. you could be an animist atheist since atheism says nothing about the existence of a 'soul' (although most atheist probably don't believe in the soul)

MELISSA B2007-09-14T06:45:38Z

There is a difference between them all.
An atheist is someone who does not believe in God.
An agnostic is someone believes that the evidence for and against the existence of God is inconclusive.
A pagan is a practitioner of an Earth Religion.
An animist is someone who believes that personalized supernatural beings (or souls) inhabit all objects and govern their existence.

Tony AM2007-09-14T06:39:36Z

Spelling?


Of course there's a difference. You have a dictionary and access to almost every bit of information on the planet (internet) USE IT!

Atheist has no god beliefe, agnostic means you can't know for sure, pagan is a religion and animist is like spirit belief or something.

All different see?

Gothic Shadow2007-09-14T06:41:32Z

Atheist: Believes in no deities
Agnostic: Undecided in faith; a fence sitter
Pagan: Earth based spiritualist
Animist: Believe that all things, even inanimate objects, have a soul, or some kind of spiritual energy.
Note: Many Pagans are also animists. Like myself.

Anonymous2007-09-14T06:41:08Z

There are differences among them.

An atheist does not believe in the existence of divine beings.

An agnostic believes that divine beings cannot be known or proven to exist.

A pagan, the name deriving from the Latin for "rural," tends to believe in the divinity of nature and natural process.

I am not familiar with what an "animist" might believe.

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