Atheists, am I right about this?

Great, yes you are absolutely right about it. One can feel like they somehow KNOW god does not exist, or one can believe god does not exist but at the same time know that it can't be known for sure and beliefs are about preferences. As an agnostic I sometimes get bored and become an agnostic atheist or an agnostic theist. Depends on my mood. I don't claim anything, I just believe in what I want to believe in that moment. I never ever felt gnostic about god's existence or non existence though. But I know a lot of people who CLAIM to KNOW.

Hope this is helpful, thanks for the nice question.

"Since the word gnostic comes from the Greek root gnosis, which means knowledge, it meant to have absolute knowledge of something"

The word "absolute" is a ridiculous and dishonest inclusion.

"So a gnostic atheist would be somebody who thinks that you can prove that no god exists, and an agnostic atheist would be somebody who thinks that you cannot prove that no god exists."

You really have no clue, huh.

Theist: I BELIEVE in god.

Atheist: I don't BELIEVE in god.

Agnostic: I don't have enough information to KNOW if god exists or not.

You're welcome

~

Strictly speaking, no one can ever actually be gnostic about anything. There must always be some degree of doubt. But yes, your understanding of the word seems right.

Gnostic atheist here.

I am more certain that no gods have ever existed than I am about what my name and date of birth are.

And a theist's problem with that is that I am one of those people who he loves to hate, because he always knows *exactly* what he is talking about.

You have my permission to hate me a little more now. You cannot enjoy having your beliefs called *pathetic*, I know.

Yes. You're basically right. The graph that Cacaphony provided outlines it pretty well.

Not exactly. 'Gnostic' is not simply the opposite of 'agnostic'. Gnosticism was an early form of Christianity.

In the early days of Christianity, the first several centuries, before the New Testament was compiled, Christianity was very diverse. There were many different groups of early Christians who believed very different things. For instance, some thought Jesus was God masquerading as a man, some thought he was just a man, some thought he was both.

Gnosticism was one of the more far-out of these groups. It was VERY different from how we think of Christianity today. To explain it is a little complex but one feature of it was that they believed that some of us descended directly from the gods (they believed in more than one God!) and it was only those people who have souls. And KNOWING that you were one of these people was important for your salvation. 'Gnosis' was not just knowledge in general, it was a certain kind of knowledge.

OTOH 'agnosticism' is a term coined only about 100 years ago, to mean someone who admits that nothing can be known for sure. The word 'skepticism' really means just that, the feeling that nothing can be known absolutely for sure. 'Agnostic' originally meant someone who didn't believe but today it's just someone who doesn't claim to know for sure, so an agnostic can be a believer or a non-believer.

Now the meanings of all these words change over time. Years ago, a person who was sure there was no God was a 'strong atheist', and one who didn't know, or who chose not to believe because of lack of evidence, was a 'weak atheist'. Today we use the word 'agnostic' much more freely.

And while I have no real argument either with belief or disbelief, I can see that it's impossible to prove whether God exists or not. So I see agnosticism as the only logically defensible position!

You attempt to associate a belief with a perspective.

Atheist do not need to prove for they are not attempting to sell you anything. You are free (in most countries) to believe what ever you choose.

Atheism is the understand that none of the thousands of gods mankind has created and worshipped through the centuries in a vain attempt to come to terms with, identify with and explain that which they felt was significant in life but did not understand have ever actually existed, accepting in the minds of their followers.

It is the knowledge that all of the gods, except our newer creations of man, have been resigned to myth, lore and legend as man became more aware and able.

Have a chart.

asked the same Q twice

see the other answer

You are mistaken about the meaning of the words.