Topics Religion

Question I used to think that I was an atheist when I was young. After a few years, I decided that I was agnostic, since I disliked the dogmatic denial of atheism. On reading some of the answers on this site, I am no longer sure what I am! I find the firm denial of atheism unscientific - there is always doubt.... there could conceivably be a God. To take such an uncompromising approach is to be as rigid in opinion as a believer. On the other hand, I don't BELIEVE in a God. What am I?!

Accepted:
January 20, 2006

Comments

It sounds to me like you're a something of a skeptic--resistant to dogmatism of any kind, whether theist, atheist, or agnostic. (Yes, agnostics can be dogmatic, too, holding dogmatically that religious questions can't be answered.)

It also sounds like you remain, however, troubled by a persisting need to be dogmatic about something. Perhaps you can let go of that. Perhaps you might consider the possibility that there's something inherently unstable about religious dogmatics, or anti-religious dogmatics for that matter. Theistic/atheistic/agnostic alternatives seem to come and go in a kind of natural way to people (in a way that beliefs about ordinary, middle-sized, middle-distanced objects like tables and chairs don't). I find something of this in Hume, for example. You might try reading some of Hume' Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, as well as Montaigne's Essays related to religion, and Erasmus's In Praise of Folly.