persons of faith and atheists alike?

Because I have bigger balls than agnostics.

Are you agnostic about Zeus or Odin? Are you agnostic about the Hindu pantheon? Are you agnostic about the Voodoo god Pappa Lambas? No, I suspect you are basically a Christian who has doubts... that is it. If you really are agnostic, you need to accept the possibility of every incarnation of God. You also need to give big foot, fairies, and the Loch Ness Monster the benefit of the doubt because these cannot be disproved either.

Further, agnostic really IS a meaningless in this case. It means "without knowledge." Well, EVERYONE is agnostic when it comes to god. Most atheists, and intellectually honest believers, will admit you cannot know for a fact God is or is not real. However, we can have faith (in the case of believers) or look at the evidence and be very, very sure (in the case of atheists).

Agnostic is not the intellectual high ground, it is an unwillingness to admit the truth.

To the people that seem to jump to conclusions when you are stating why you are atheist:

There is more then one religion. Just because there is 'evidence' stating that the Christian God doesn't exist it doesn't mean one instantly cannot be agnostic and must instantly become atheist. There is not enough proof either way to say whether there are no gods or there are gods. Simply, I believe in possibility however I will not put my eggs in any basket for that would be arrogance to decide that one is right over all else based upon nothing.

Academia states that in the absence of any sort of evidence of the existence of something it must be deemed not to exist until verifiable evidence is found - thus god is held not to exist pending some sort of verifiable evidence.

The bible is what is called "Faction" A fictional story set in a factual time and place. Thus the time, place and real historical characters are all correct but the fictional characters and stories are not!

There is not one single mention of Jesus in the entire Roman record - that is right - not one! At the same time as he was supposed to have been around there were a number of Jews claiming to be the messiah - all of whom are well recorded!

There is not a single contemporary record from any source and even the bible mentions of him like all other references were not written until many years after his supposed death!

He was supposed to have been a huge problem to the Romans and produced wonderful miracles but still not one contemporary record?

Even the bible mentions of him like all other references were not written until many years after his supposed death!

Pilate is recorded in the Roman record as a somewhat lack luster man but no mention of a Jesus, a trial or crucifixion that would surely have been used to make him look brighter!

At best he was an amalgam of those others but almost certainly never existed!

Not one word of it is contemporary with the period and was not written until several hundred years after the period the story is set in!! How did the apostles write their books more than a hundred years after they would have been dead?

The first person to provide a shred of verifiable evidence for God or Jesus will become world famous and mega rich!

Ain't happened yet and it never will!

Please realize that those claims for the Old historians are worthless since they were not even born until long after everyone in the stories would have been so long dead!

Josephus AD 37 – AD 100

Tacitus AD 56 – AD 120

Suetonius - 69 – 130 AD

Pliny the Younger, 61 AD – 112 AD

Justin Martyr (Saint Justin) AD103–165 AD

Lucian - AD 120 -180 AD but he was hostile to Christianity and openly mocked it.

Pamphilius AD 240-309 AD

Eusebius AD 263 – 339 AD

Photius AD 877 – 886 AD

Thallus - But there are no actual record of him except a fragment of writing which mentions the sack of Troy [109 BC] Showing that he was clearly not alive in biblical times.

Some even try to use Seneca. 4 BCE – 65 CE but as a Stoic Philosopher he opposed religion yet made not a single mention of a Jesus or Christianity!

Even funnier is trying to claim Celsus AD ? – 177 AD Who said that Jesus was a Jew who’se mother was a poor Jewish girl whose husband, who was a carpenter, drove her away because of her adultery with a Roman soldier named Panthera. She gave birth to an illegitimate child named Jesus. In Egypt, Jesus became learned in sorcery and upon his return presented himself as a god.

Because I do not believe mythical characters are real. There is literally tons of evidence that proves God is a mythical character. Is there any particular reason you are agnostic when there is evidence out there that proves God is a mythical character?

When I first realized that adults actually *believed* the religious stories, I was shocked. It completely shook my faith in adults. It never once entered my mind that the stories were true, anymore than I would consider I might really have six legs. The "untruth" of the stories was that obvious...even to a child.

Which way in agnosticism do you lean?

I was raised agnostic, but I chose to become a staunch atheist because religions couldn't explain themselves satisfactorily.

Agnostics sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because militant atheists stand ready to write anti-religious books and sue the government on their behalf.

My faith was one filled in me as a child. Obviously ask grew up my faith changed and evolved with my experiences in life, but the basics are still there. I think, for me, faith is just something that I find comfort in. I see many terrible things in my job and faith in something greater is comforting and a way to food with some of the tragedies that I have seen.

Because I am unconvinced of the claims of religion.

The gods I have heard about seem to be pretty much what I would expect if they were imagined by people.