What point of view holds that it is impossible to answer the question that God exists?

Answer 1

Short Answer:Agnosticism is the view that it is impossible to know whether or not God exists. Contrary to popular opinion, agnosticism is NOT a religion. Neither is Atheism. The word agnostic has several similar but not identical meanings. What follows describes what some call "strong agnosticism". Supporting Material:Agnosticism is a radical position, and I believe more radical than atheism, in opposition to theistic beliefs. Agnostics avoid the dogmatic position that is held by faith-based believers and by atheists alike. I am not saying that atheists believe in a deity, but that they hold to an absolute assurance that the deity does not exist. One problem with this view is that atheists conclude something about deities (they absolutely do not exist) while even the very best science cannot conclude anything absolute about the most fundamental scientific theories and models. In a sense, atheists are unwittingly giving credibility not to a deity, but to the fundamentalist mindset held by many people of faith: "there are some things we can be certain about, and whether or not a deity exists is one of them." There is also the difficulty with 'proving the negative'. PROVE that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Clearly, the only thing that can be proven is that there ARE such weapons, if indeed there are such weapons there.

Agnostics are not on the fence, waiting for a little more information to come in. In other words, being agnostic is nothing at all like having a crisis of faith. A believer who goes through a period of serious doubt may end up being agnostic, but it would likely not happen quickly. A crisis of faith is an emotional and/or intellectual struggle in which a person is working out her/his relationship with the deity, including the wrenching question whether or not there ever WAS such a relationship, or such a deity for that matter. Agnostics are not going through anything of the kind.

Agnosticism is an approach to knowledge itself and it represents one rational conclusion that can be drawn from a naturalist view of the world. If 'degrees of atheism' could somehow be measured, I would probably be found virtually as strongly atheistic as the staunchest of them. I am simply unwilling to take the step of attributing certainty to this kind of mystical, meaningless (to me) and unsupportable knowledge, when other much more important concepts from the world of human knowledge are inevitably and necessarily in a state of constant and dynamic flux. What is the basis upon which I would come to any certain conclusion about... a deity? As a concept, certainty is highly over-rated.