An agnostic position is one that leaves open the question whether there exists a god or gods, professing to find such a question unanswered or unanswerable. For the atheist, the question has been answered, and in the negative.
Interpretation
An agnostic position accepts uncertainty about the existence of a deity, while atheism firmly denies it.
This quote by Jaroslav Pelikan distinguishes between agnosticism and atheism. An agnostic maintains an open stance towards the existence of a god or gods, acknowledging the limits of human knowledge on this subject, while an atheist has reached a conclusion that no deities exist. This elaboration highlights the nuances in beliefs regarding divinity and the nature of religious inquiry.
In practice
In a discussion about faith during a philosophy class.
Tradition is the living faith of dead people to which we must add our chapter while we have the gift of life. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people who fear that if anything changes, the whole enterprise will crumble.
Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of western culture for almost twenty centuries... It is from his birth that most of the human race dates its calendars, it is by his name that millions curse and in his name that millions pray.
Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition lives in conversation with the past, while remembering where we are and when we are and that it is we who have to decide. Traditionalism supposes that nothing should ever be done for the first time, so all that is needed to solve any problem is to arrive at the supposedly unanimous testimony of this homogenized tradition.
Oppressed groups are frequently placed in the situation of being listened to only if we frame our ideas in the language that is familiar to and comfortable for a dominant group. This requirement often changes the meaning of our ideas and works to elevate the ideas of dominant groups.
The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.
...rapid motion through space elates one.
Nobody these days holds the written word in such high esteem as police states do.
He had the air of a spy in a melodrama, missing nothing, liking nothing, looking forward to the great day when everything would be turned upside down.
A life spent entirely in public, in the presence of others, becomes, as we would say, shallow. While it retains its visibility, it loses its quality of rising into sight from some darker ground which must remain hidden if it is not to lose its depth in a very real, non-subjective sense.
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