Agnostic vs. Atheist

2 Thes. 2:13 “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”

I don’t know much about agnosticism or atheism but I’m going to do a little research and find out. Maybe it’s because I don’t understand the language.

I have a friend who said he’s agnostic but now he says he’s a Christian; my son who was a Christian now says he’s agnostic. This riddled my brain because I’ve been a Christian for the majority of my life and I don’t understand the concept of not believing or needing proof. My son tells me that my beliefs are like a foreign language to him, he doesn’t understand me, and so here I am trying to understand something I may never understand. 

The definition of agnostic is:
A person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.

The definition of atheist is:
A person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.

To me, an agnostic needs proof to believe in the existence of God where an atheist could care less if there is a God and they live every day waiting for the cold, clammy earth that awaits them after death. 

Agnostic vs. atheist - Atheism is about belief, or specifically what you don't believe. Agnosticism is about knowledge, or specifically about what you don't know. An atheist doesn't believe in any gods. An agnostic doesn't know if any gods exist or not.

When raising my son I took him to church, a church that baptized him and saw him through the ritualistic practices every Sunday. He attended the youth groups and he enjoyed it at first but I always told him that he was his own person and could believe in what he wanted to believe and that I could not force him to believe in what I believed. 

Around the age of seventeen my son told me that he didn’t have the same belief as me, he was now an agnostic and though it was a little startling, seeing as I tried so hard raising him right, it hit me like a swift angry wind, it stung. What did I do wrong? I was assured I had done nothing wrong and realized he was now his own person and could make decisions on his own. 

When I asked him what had happened, as vocal as the young man is, he told me point blank, hypocrites happened. Adam has eyes to see and ears to hear and when he witnessed so-called Christians, they were of the Sunday only variety. They looked and performed the Christianity on Sunday but the rest of the week they would drink, curse and be filled with hate so unchristianlike he assumed most Christians were fakes hiding behind masks. He also told me this, “Not all Christians are like you mom, they don’t see what you see.” He went on to say that it was like if I went over to China I would not understand their language just as they wouldn’t understand my language or my faith. He did have a point. I tried to teach him a language he didn’t understand.

As I dug deeper into this agnostic vs. atheist it helped me to understand where my son was coming from in his beliefs, since we were obviously on different pages. I asked him if he believed in Jesus and he said yes because there is proof of His existence. 

This site answered it better than I ever could. 

Tim Staples wrote: “An agnostic is someone who believes human beings simply cannot know anything metaphysical or beyond the physical realm; therefore, they cannot know whether things like spirit, angels or God exist at all.”

Pss. 53:4 “Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.”

There it is in a nutshell for ME. You see, I’ve always put God on the metaphysical level understanding the spirit so as not to be led into a belief of some man high in the clouds sitting on a golden throne judging the lower man of earth. To ME, Jesus was a man, God was the spirit in which He was created thus to me, Jesus IS the Son of God. 

I hit another point to ponder: Austin Cline wrote: “One major problem is that atheism and agnosticism both deal with questions about the existence of gods, but whereas atheism involves what a person does or does not believe, agnosticism involves what a person does or does not know. Belief and knowledge are related but nevertheless separate issues.”

An AHA moment for sure. Belief and knowledge are related but totally separate issues. I wonder if there is another blog topic in here that I will most likely do research on, belief and knowledge. To ME, my belief is my faith and my faith is built on MY knowledge. I can’t judge what others believe because it is a foreign language to me. Only they know what knowledge they have so who am I to judge whether a person is an agnostic or an atheist.

The so-called Christians who turned my son from God is another topic I’ll delve into because they certainly have their eyes on me so I will turn the camera on them. 

Job 36:4 “For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.”

Is God dead?

Pss. 40: 10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

Is God dead?

I’ve been taking a break from writing these past few months, and a friend of mine made the comment, “You’re abandoning your God given talent?”

“No, no I’m not,” I offer, “I’m taking a rest.”

We live in a day and age where people need proof that God exists. They go on and on about having faith, but then they seek out ‘proof’ in archeological findings to see if He was really real, if Jesus existed, if the flood was real, if Moses parted the sea. Is that faith?

I can be preachy at times, but that is by my choice not because someone or some religion expects it from me. I don’t and won’t push my beliefs on anyone but I will share when my heart is heavy laden and I need to get things out there.

I read the news daily and also the comments. Whatever you do in the yahoo comment section, don’t mention God. You’ll get thumbs down out the wazoo! It seems to many that God is an imaginary creature that man has created in the wellsprings of the mind and passed on for thousands of years. Is His legend dying?

By no means. If He can still anger so many people for existing, then I think he is very much alive. They just need proof.

I know this is a writing blog but among writers this debate goes on and on too. This weeks question:

Does adherence to rationality lead to atheism ?

George (opposes Christ) wrote: Paula, I'm glad you are so certain. I know it gives great comfort. I agree that there is a lot of wisdom in the Bible and the Judeo-Christian religions. There is also a lot of mythological fantasy obviously written by man and plagiarized from previous versions of a God.
None of that convinces me that I am doomed to hell for not buying in to the whole nine yards. I go to church with my wife often. At the end of the sermon, the Pastor always says, for those who have not found him yet, ask him into your hearts now. I do that with as much earnestness as I can. The message I get in return is, "You are on the right path, keep trucking, no worries."  (Joni’s note: So where does this message you get come from? Your mind?)
It takes no faith to be an Atheist or Agnostic, it takes great faith to be a Christian. Why many keep trying to make a parallel with that is beyond me and shows a weakness in their faith. LOL 
Where we agree is that in the working of the laws of nature there sometimes appear (for me) positive, unexpected, synergistic results that I choose to attribute to a "Higher Power." I have observed countless miracles in that manner and I am constantly amazed by them. (Joni’s note: Higher power? Would THAT be God?)
The people in my wifes' church here in Texas pray for everything, world peace, end the drought, win the lottery, cure cancer etc. I don't have faith in that kind of "Prayer on demand" but they do, despite any rationally measured success rate.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it until new evidence appears. Which I am open to.

Paula (believer of Christ) wrote: If you were God and you created beings that you love, then do you make them robots? That's not love. That is slavery or worse. So you create this universe and humans evolve from that. They have a choice. The wrong choices humans make have terrible consequences for other humans and nature itself. We have to take responsibility for this and not blame God.

I get really mad at God sometimes, but this life is going to end for me some day. What evidence do I have that no matter how bad this life gets there is still a sunrise? Don't slam the door on my viewpoint. Go back and reread the biblical accounts and the books written about the evidence. There is real evidence.

Cathy (a believer) wrote: George, I don't think that Jesus performed "magic" which is usually a form of trickery where the hand is quicker than the eye. Now how they saw people in half and separate the box, I have no idea. But Jesus was pure, God's power which is ever present for all of us flowed through him. It was his intention rooted in compassionate love that allowed him to use that power to heal the sick. It's like having a very well wired house but never having established the service contract. It is capable of making the lights go on and all of the appliances work but with out meeting the condition of turning on the source, nothing works. So what is the price for service? That is what the whole gospel and teachings of Jesus are about. It is the instructions manual about how to get to the state of a pure and contrite heart that will get the evil and distractions or our fleshly appetites out of the way and under control so that the divine power can flow through us. We are designed to be fully divine. Jesus was the fully functioning 'model unit" so to speak to show the way and motivate mankind to change and return to God.

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Let me tell you, George went on for pages decrying the falsity of God and Jesus. Every scientific theory he came up with, there was a believer with a somewhat better argument, in my opinion. But then again, I’m a believer.

I’ve learned many things in my young life, and as a believer there are some things you just don’t talk about: money, God and Religion. I myself don’t have an argument for atheist. They don’t believe and maybe never will. Believers will speak and write, often falling on deaf ears. But hidden among all the rubble is TRUTH. That is where people get divided; seeking out the TRUTH.

In my rational mind allow me to ask you this: How come no one blames Zeus for striking their house with a lightning bolt burning it and all material things to the ground? Why doesn’t man blame atlas for the climate change? Why do they blame a God they don’t believe in? Boggles the mind.

Where does all this fit into the WRITING world?  Apparently the writers of the world are seeking some truth to their writing so that they’re not misleading readers. But who really has the TRUTH?

I watch as man defecates on man, destroys the very thing that they believe in and we wonder, “Where is God in all this turmoil?” There’s a post going around facebook that says something like this: “The teacher is quietest during the test.”  I like that!

He’s watching us destroy ourselves and don’t worry, He’ll be back to ‘correct our mistakes on the test’. But don’t take my word on it, seek out the proof you need, seek out the truth and before you know it, you’ll fall flat on your face in the realization of, the TRUTH!