DangerousTalkDangerous Talk » Atheist vs. Agnostic

Atheist vs. Agnostic

Posted on October 18th, 2010 by Staks

A lot of people get tripped up on labels and people in the greater atheistic community are no exception. Two of the main labels that tend to confuse a lot of freethinkers are atheism and agnosticism. Of course many religious people have learned to exploit this confusion.

I have written quite a bit about the difference between atheism and agnosticism before and it has even become the first in my Atheism 101 series for Examiner. You check out that article HERE.

But over the weekend, I found a video that does a great job addressing some of the objections to the distinctions made between those two labels. I will post that video at the bottom of this post. But first I want to stress that the problem for most non-believes seems to be more in the labeling and less in the actual positioning.

Some people who use the term “agnostic” just think that the term “atheist” has a harder and more aggressive connotation while those who prefer the term “atheist” tend to think that the term “agnostic” is too wishy washy. Regardless of the label used, we are all on the same side. Religious people might exploit the confusion, but make no mistake that to the fundamentalist, we are all heathens who have rejected their God and are destined to be tortured for all eternity.