Discussion UsefulNotes / Agnosticism

Agnosticism is distinct in the sense that whilst agnostics do not necessarily believe in God, they do not disbelieve in God either. While agnostics generally agree with atheists on the subject of belief in God or gods, they disagree on the subject of disbelief: a common agnostic criticism of atheism is the scientific principle that "absence of proof does not consitute a disproof".

The information here directly contradicts the concept of "implicit atheism" and the distinction between strong and weak atheism on the Useful Notes/Atheism page. Atheism neither implies nor requires any amount of certainty that God does not exist.

• agnostic atheism, the belief that while no deity exists, it is not impossible that one does.
• agnostic theism, the belief that a God does exist, but that it is not certain.

I think the idea is that when you have no evidence for or against the existence of X (be it Yahweh, Vishnu, Zeus, Russell's teapot or Atlantis) then the default position would be disbelief (=> "agnostic" atheism) yet faith requires no proof to begin with (=> "agnostic" theism). It usually portrays agnosticism as a stance on knowledge and a moot point in regard to belief.