Agnosticism is simple. It's logical. It's the only
"religion"
anyone with any sense could believe, because it's not a religion.
Religion by its own definition requires one to believe something
without adequate evidence, and that is simply illogical. Being
areligious
is, plainly, the only civilized way to be. It is science and
math,
instead of faith and belief. It's either the attempt to find out
what the nature of the multiverse really is, or the willingness to admit we
will probably never know. And it annoys the religious because,
deep inside, they have the same doubts and questions that we do.
Q: Is agnosticism about acting on any sick fantasy that feels
right,
since there are no eternal consequences?
A: No. Most agnostics are actually sort of like Christians
(the good, decent ones) in some ways -- we believe that being a
good person is essential, and that murdering or abusing people is a
no-no.
However, the reasons behind this are completely different.
Christians
say "because that's what God wants" and then proceed to drone on and on
about what "He" doesn't want. Agnostics say "because killing or
hurting
people is a violation of the personal rights of the victim."
People
have the natural right to think dirty thoughts and copulate with whores
and masturbate until their genetalia fall off, but as soon as a person
starts violating someone else's personal rights (ie: raping, killing,
stealing,
smoking where one's children are breathing, burning or defacing
churches,
farting in a crowded elevator, and even telling someone that
they are doomed to spend eternity writhing in agony just because they
don't
follow ones' own personal set of morals), then it becomes bad.
The
consequences aren't supernatural (ie, one won't be struck down by God
for
raping someone), but it does upset the balance of peace in the world,
and
since we're all living here for a brief period of time, why not keep it
pleasant? (Also, you'll probly go to jail and get raped
yourself!)
Q: What is agnosticism not about?
A: Agnosticism is not about going to church. Agnosticism
is
not about preaching any gospel to others. Agnosticism is not
about reading
some badly-written book of fairy tales and committing totally
irrelevant
passages to memory in order to spew them at the people they consider to
be heathens. Agnosticism is not about telling people that they
aren't
loved unless they believe in a random messiah and that they're going
to spend eternity in some horribly agonizing afterlife because they
don't
perpetuate any religion's hierarchy that they themselves have enslaved
themselves in.
Q: What's the difference between agnosticism and Atheism?
A: There aren't all that many, but the ones that do exist are
crucial. First, agnosticism is independent of everything.
Atheists have
their website, their big
meetings,
their numerous clubs, their literature, and their belief system.
It's basically turned into another religion, something agnosticism can
never
be. Many people even find them more annoying than Jehova's
Witnesses.
On the issue of beliefs, they are mainly the same (man before god,
separation
of church and state, personal freedom), but Atheism is inherently
flawed as it assumes knowledge that
mankind cannot have. Just like claiming know know and
understand the nature of God, claiming that there is
no god represents a complete breakdown of rational thought.