27% of American agnostics believe with certainty there is a God compared with 23% of European Christians. What is wrong with this?
[theatlantic.com]
I don't see how it is possible to be an agnostic and believe with certainty that there is a god. The very definition of agnostic is NOT having certainty. If such a person says that they are an agnostic then they are either lying or have no idea what agnostic is.
yeah, I knew someone would make my reply for me, thanks.
Probably the article, which is misleading as hell.
The article is talking about the Nones, which includes agnostics, atheists, and also its largest component, religiously unaffiliated theists. The religiosity of the group is mostly a function of the believers, by definition. Sure, a few atheists for example belong to atheistic religions like Buddhism (or more often, practice secularized meditation or some other subset), or go to a UU church which is non-creedal / post-Christian and welcomes atheists and various theists. But those are outliers looking mostly for community in a particular way.
@iamjc I haven't read the report the article is talking about but would be unsurprised to find the study is not saying what the article is saying. In fact if you read between the lines, the article seems to be deliberately misinterpreting what the study is saying. Or maybe they are amplifying sloppy thinking in the study, who knows. These days I don't pay much attention to such articles. They usually manage to lose me when they confuse association with cause.
The ‘Agnostic thing’ continues to confuse me … so they can believe in a god..? ..and in my stupid nation, 27% of them actually do
Agnostic: “a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of [g]od or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in [g]od.” … I’m not seeing an option in that description for a ‘god.’
Someone is confused about the definition of Agnostic...
[merriam-webster.com]
What is wrong with this is that Agnostics, by definition do not belive God necessarily exists, or necessarily does not exist. So 27% of American Agnostics cannot actually believe with a certainty that there is a God.
Christians, also by definition are not non-theistic, so the part where it mentions that 23% percent of European Christians is also incorrect.
The Atlantic is not a real news source. They are a bunch of left-wing nose pickers. Just read their dossier on this site:
Because rightwingers don't pick their nose?