In “An Agnostic Manifesto” literary critic Ron Rosenbaum, a self-described agnostic, writes, “Agnosticism is not weak-tea atheism,” but “radical skepticism, doubt in the possibility of certainty.” He explains that unlike both atheists and theists, agnostics refuse to accept things on faith. For example, when asked about the origin of the universe – what “banged” and what caused it – the agnostic shrugs, ever so humbly, “I don’t know.”
It is a response calculated to let you know that he occupies an elevated plain of intellectual integrity. What the agnostic doesn’t realize is that he is just as much a person of faith as those he tries to distance himself from. It begins with what he really knows.
What he knows
What he or anyone knows starts with personal experience.
Children learn about the dangers of a hot stove not from their mother’s warnings but from the smarting of their curious fingertips. Adults will insist that a ball, swung over the head on a string, will follow a curved path when released, until they try it and discover that it continues on a straight one.