Ignosticism or igtheism is the idea that every theological position assumes too much about the concept of God and other theological concepts; including (but not limited to) concepts of faith, spirituality, heaven, hell, afterlife, damnation, salvation, sin and the soul. <\/p>\n
Ignosticism is the view that any religious term or theological concept presented must be accompanied by a coherent definition. Without a clear definition such terms cannot be meaningfully discussed. Such terms or concepts must also be falsifiable. Lacking this an ignostic takes the theological noncognitivist position that the existence or nature of the terms presented (and all matters of debate) is meaningless. For example, if the term \"God\" does not refer to anything reasonably defined then there is no conceivable method to test against the existence of god. Therefore the term \"God\" has no literal significance and need not be debated or discussed. <\/p>\n
Some philosophers have seen ignosticism as a variation of agnosticism or atheism,[1] while others have considered it to be distinct. <\/p>\n
Ignosticism and theological noncognitivism are generally synonymous,[2] but the relationship of ignosticism to other nontheistic views is less clear. While Paul Kurtz finds the view to be compatible with both weak atheism and agnosticism,[3] other philosophers consider ignosticism to be distinct. <\/p>\n
The term ignosticism was coined in the 1960s by Sherwin Wine, a rabbi and a founding figure of Humanistic Judaism. The term igtheism was coined by the secular humanist Paul Kurtz in his 1992 book The New Skepticism.[4] <\/p>\n
In a chapter of his 1936 book Language, Truth, and Logic, A. J. Ayer argued that one could not speak of God's existence, or even the probability of God's existence, since the concept itself was unverifiable and thus nonsensical.[5] Ayer wrote that this ruled out atheism and agnosticism as well as theism because all three positions assume that the sentence \"God exists\" is meaningful.[6] Given the meaninglessness of theistic claims, Ayer opined that there was \"no logical ground for antagonism between religion and natural science\",[7] as theism alone does not entail any propositions which the scientific method can falsify. <\/p>\n
Like Ayer, Theodore Drange sees atheism and agnosticism as positions that accept \"God exists\" as a meaningful proposition: atheists judge it to be \"false or probably false\" while agnostics consider it to be inconclusive until further evidence is met.[8] If Drange's definitions are accepted, ignostics are neither atheists nor agnostics. A simplified maxim on the subject states \"An atheist would say, 'I don't believe God exists'; an agnostic would say, 'I don't know whether or not God exists'; and an ignostic would say, 'I don't know what you mean when you say, \"God exists\". <\/p>\n
Although often described as one of the New Atheists, Sam Harris has expressed frustration with the label and often employs ignostic arguments criticizing the ambiguous and inconsistent definitions of \"God\". Harris finds the label of atheism as extraneous as needing to label oneself a non-racist or a non-believer in Zeus.[9] In this sense, Harris finds debating about the existence of God to be both absurd and ascientific yet still an inconvenient necessity when speaking in defense of reason and science. <\/p>\n
Ignosticism is not to be confused with apatheism, a position of apathy toward the existence of God. An apatheist may see the statement \"God exists\" as insignificant; yet they may also see it as having semantic value, and perhaps being true.[10] <\/p>\n
Drange emphasizes that any stance on \"Does God exist?\" is made with respect to a particular concept of what one claims to consider \"God\" to represent: <\/p>\n
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