Agnosticism

Agnosticism is the belief that the truth values of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, as well as other religious and metaphysical claims, are unknown or unknowable.^[1][2][3]
 Agnosticism sometimes indicates doubt or a skeptical approach to questions. In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of a deity or deities, whereas a theist and an atheist believe and disbelieve, respectively.^[2] Philosopher William L. Rowe states that in the strict sense, however, agnosticism is the view that humanity lacks the requisite knowledge or sufficient rational grounds to justify either belief: that there exists some deity, or that no deities exist.
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Thomas Henry Huxley, an English biologist, coined the word agnostic in 1869.^[4] However, earlier thinkers have written works that promoted agnostic points of view. These thinkers include Sanjaya Belatthaputta, a 5th-century BCE Indian philosopher who expressed agnosticism about any afterlife,^[5] Protagoras, a 5th-century BCE Greek philosopher who was agnostic about the gods,^[6] and the Nasadiya Sukta in the Rig Veda which is agnostic about the origin of the universe. 
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Since the time that Huxley coined the term, many other thinkers have extensively written about agnosticism

• 1 Defining agnosticism
  • 1.1 Etymology
  • 1.2 Qualifying agnosticism
  • 1.3 Types of agnosticism
• 2 History
  • 2.1 Hindu philosophy
  • 2.2 Greek philosophy
  • 2.3 Hume, Kant, and Kierkegaard
  • 2.4 Thomas Henry Huxley
  • 2.5 William Stewart Ross
  • 2.6 Robert G. Ingersoll
  • 2.7 Bertrand Russell
  • 2.8 Leslie Weatherhead
• 3 Demographics
• 4 Criticism
  • 4.1 Religious
  • 4.2 Atheist
• 5 Related concepts
• 6 See also
• 7 References
• 8 External links