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No one founder of agnosticism has existed. The word is a variant of agnosis, which simply means "not knowing," and people use it in reference to their belief that a person cannot truly know whether or not a god does or does not, or gods do or do not, exist. That is strong agnosticism. Weak agnosticism is an individual's being undecided.

If it can be said that there was a main proponent of agnosticism, then that proponent was one of Charles Darwin's staunchest defenders, Thomas Henry Huxley. He noted that others had too-strong beliefs--he called them gnostics--whilst he was still searching. For him, agnosticism was an epistemological method, one that might have been equated with rationalism, and thus did not conflict with his being an atheist in metaphysics.

Hence, it is possible for a person to be both a strong agnostic and an atheist. Rationalists declare their argumentation defensible and maintain that agnosticism applies. But some of these consider strong agnosticism wrong in that the arguments against God and the arguments for naturalism succeed. It is therefore a matter of judgment. Graham Robert Oppy, in Arguing About Gods,expresses the fallibilist attitude and explains weak agnosticism.

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14y ago

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