Ignosticism

Ignosticism is the idea that the question of the existence of God is meaningless, because the term "god" has no unambiguous definition. Ignosticism requires a good, non-controversial definition of god before arguing on its existence.

Some philosophers have seen ignosticism as a variation of agnosticism or atheism,^[1] whereas others have considered it to be distinct.

Terminology

Ignosticism and theological noncognitivism are similar although whereas the ignostic says "every theological position assumes too much about the concept of God", the theological noncognitivist claims to have no concept whatever to label as "a concept of God",^[2] but the relationship of ignosticism to other nontheistic views is less clear. While Paul Kurtz finds the view to be compatible with both weak atheism and agnosticism,^[3] other philosophers consider ignosticism to be distinct.

The term ignosticism was coined in the 1960s by Sherwin Wine, a rabbi and a founding figure of Humanistic Judaism. The term igtheism was coined by the secular humanist Paul Kurtz in his 1992 book The New Skepticism.^[4]

See also

• Apophatism
• Conceptions of God
• Epistemology
• Pantheism
• Scientific method
• Theological noncognitivism
• Verificationist

References

1. "The Argument From Non-Cognitivism". Retrieved 2008-02-11.
2. Conifer, Theological Noncognitivism: "Theological noncognitivism is usually taken to be the view that the sentence 'God exists' is cognitively meaningless."
3. Kurtz, New Skepticism, 220: "Both [atheism and agnosticism] are consistent with igtheism, which finds the belief in a metaphysical, transcendent being basically incoherent and unintelligible."
4. "isms of the week: Agnosticism and Ignosticism". The Economist. 2010-07-28. Retrieved December 19, 2011.

Sources

• Conifer, Steven J. (June 2002). "Theological Noncognitivism Examined". The Interlocutor 4. Archived from the original on January 23, 2004. Retrieved 24 May 2007.
• Drange, Theodore (1998). "Atheism, Agnosticism, Noncognitivism". Internet Infidels. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
• Kurtz, Paul (1992). The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-766-3.
• Rauch, Jonathan (2003). "Let It Be". The Atlantic 291 (4). Retrieved 2007-05-24.
• Spiegel, Irving (1965-06-20). "Jewish 'Ignostic' Stirs Convention; Dropping of 'God' in Service Deplored and Condoned". New York Times. p. 62.

External links

• The dictionary definition of ignosticism at Wiktionary