Welcome to the Objective Experience. Terms are important, and defining your terms is even more important when you're discussing controversial topics, especially when you discuss them with people that don’t share the same opinion as you. Religion is a really good example of this. People, often times, are fuzzy about what theist, atheist, gnostic, and agnostic mean, and it’s not their fault. Online dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster are atrocious at defining these terms. That’s where most of us will get our definitions from, but it is essential that those definitions make sense. It’s important to note, at this time, that the words atheist and agnostic can not exist without the words theist and gnostic, and that’s what brings us to our first term, a-.
The use of the letter a- in front of a word is of greek origin. An example of this is asymptomatic. Where symptomatic means having a certain symptom, asymptomatic means not having a certain symptom. Asymptomatic simply means not symptomatic. A- simply means not.
Gnostic also has a greek origin. The origin of the word is gnostikos which is the adjective related to gnosis or knowledge. Gnostic means to have knowledge of or to know. So when a- is used in front of gnostic, it means to not know. Agnostic means to not know.
Theist is another word that originated from the greek. It is the adjective related to theism. Theism derives from the Greek theos meaning god. We use it to describe someone believes in a god or gods. A theist is someone who believes in a god or gods. Atheist simply means not a theist, which logically equates to someone who doesn’t believe in a god or gods.
It’s important to note at this point that the words know and believe do not mean the same thing. Know means to be aware of something based on observation and believe simply means to accept something as true. Observation is not required to believe.
For clarity, here’s a table of the four terms being combined.
Gnostic
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Agnostic
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Theist
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Someone who believes in a god or gods and knows whether a god or gods exists.
“I know god is real.”
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Someone who believes in a god or gods and doesn’t know whether a god or gods exists.
“I believe in god, but I’ve never seen any evidence of him.”
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Atheist
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Someone who doesn’t believe in a or gods and knows whether a god or gods exists.
“I know there are no gods.”
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Someone who doesn’t believe in a god or gods and doesn’t know whether a god or gods exists.
“I don’t believe, but I’m willing to if there’s evidence.”
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Hopefully this post cleared up any misconceptions you had about what these words mean.
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” -Confucius
‘,:)
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism
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