What's the difference between agnostic and atheist?

One likes being politically correct and hates to make a decision. The other is decisive and doesn't give a crap whom he upsets.

ADDENDUM

"Agnostic believe there is a higher power"

Umm, nope.

Well, Madalyn Murray O'Hair called agnostics "atheists without guts". But, truthfully, an atheist BELIEVES, while an agnostic DOUBTS. The prefix "a" before the word "theist" nullifies the word, or means "not." So, atheists deny or disbelieve in God. Agnostics merely believe that the existence of God is unknown, and unknowable.

Those words apply to completely different concepts. Lets start with theism, the root of atheism.

Theists are people who are certain that at least one hypothetical deity that they are imagining is actually real. Everyone else (who is not theist) is atheist, since 'not theist' is what atheist means.

Agnostic is a word coined by Thomas Henry Huxley to name inherent human ignorance of some ultimate things like if there are any creator deities or not. Agnosticism is a position on human knowledge, but it makes a pretty good argument for reasonable atheism (reason for not being a theist).

Note that, since Huxley, agnostic has taken on many other connotations, including "don't tell me about your religion because I don't care", "I haven't really thought about what I think of the hypothetical god you are imagining", "I am not really interested on thinking about hypothetical deities", etc.

Note also that theists are always trying to claim that atheism as arbitrarily complicated and faith based as their own religious beliefs are, but this is not at all the case. Since no baby is born with a positive belief in the reality of any hypothetical deity, all babies are atheist, by default. The label 'atheist' tells you nothing about the reason for the atheism. It only tells you the person is not theist.

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Regards,

John Popelish

Agnostics aren't sure if there is a God and Atheists don't believe there is a God. If you really want an accurate answer though it would be so much simpler to look them both up in the dictionary.

Agnostics believe there maybe some sort of god and atheists think there is no god, also agnostics have a huge view from doubt of a god to dislike of organized religion and anything in between, so atheist is a more narrow a term whilst agnostic is a very broad term

There are no such things as "agnostics". One can be an agnostic atheist or an agnostic theist.

Agnosticism and gnosticism deals with knowledge while theism and atheism deals with belief.

Agnostic atheist: does not know for sure but does not believe

Gnostic atheist: knows for sure and does not believe

If someone tells you they are an agnostic, they most likely mean an agnostic atheist.

Atheists don't believe in the gods.

Agnostics are not 100% sure of the existence of the god/s.

They are not, by any means, mutually exclusive.

An atheist strongly believes that there is no God, while an agnostic isn't sure. It can also be referred to as "weak" and "strong" atheism

Both words have the origin in the Greek language. "Theos" means "god" and "gnosis" means "to know". In the Greek, when ever you put the letter "a" in front of a word, it negates that word. For instance, the word "muse" means to think. The word "amuse" means not to think.

Therefore, A-theist is one who believes "not God", but A-gnostic is one who believes "not knowledge" or "not knowable".

Dr. Antony G.N. Flew, in his September of 1976 debate with Dr. Thomas B. Warren defined Atheism as the strong position of affirmation. He defended the proposition "I know that God does not exist." This is the mindset of a true Atheist.

An agnostic, on the other-hand says that 1) we cannot know if God exists (strong agnostic), or 2) I, personally, do not have enough information yet to know if God exists (weak agnostic).

I am not 100% sure that I am correct, so I apologize for any incorrect information.

I have read that agnostics believe that there is not a God, but they also believe that it is possible that he exists. They have not made a clear decision.

Atheists already have decided that God is nonexistent.

Agnostic people usually just choose not to worship anything, but they won't deny that there's some higher power.

Atheists do not believe in God or a higher power.