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Ignosticism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ignosticism or igtheism is the view that the question of the existence of a transcendent God is meaningless because the terms are "clearly nonfalsifiable" and "basically unintelligible".[1] Ignosticism is often considered synonymous with theological noncognitivism.
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The term ignosticism was coined by Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder of the Society for Humanistic Judaism, and igtheism was coined by Paul Kurtz, who derived ig from the word ignorant, writing, "I am an igtheist, for I do not understand what the theist is talking about. I cannot say whether or not such a being exists since I do not comprehend what is being asserted."[2]
According to Kurtz, ignosticism is compatible with atheism and agnosticism.[3] Theodore Drange, however, sees atheism and agnosticism as cognitivist views.[4] In any case, ignosticism falls under the general category of nontheism. An atheist would say "I don't believe God exists", an agnostic would say "I don't know if God exists or not", and an ignostic would say "I don't know what you mean when you say 'God exists'."
In the entry under "God" in the Guide to Humanistic Judaism, published by the Society for Humanistic Judaism, ignosticism is defined as "finding the question of God's existence meaningless because it has no verifiable consequences."[5] This use of the term "verifiable" is consistent with logical positivism and indicates that the word "God" is cognitively meaningless, but not necessarily emotionally or aesthetically meaningless. It is sufficient to say that an ignostic thinks the idea of God as a being makes no sense.
When the word "God" is spoken, the ignostic may seek to determine if something like a child's definition of a god is meant or if a theologian's is intended.
A theistic child's concept generally has a simple and coherent meaning, based on an anthropomorphic conception of God: a big powerful man in the sky responsible for certain matters. This anthropomorphic divine conception has been rejected by Spinoza, as well as by Feuerbach in The Essence of Christianity (1841).
A theologian's concept is more complex and abstract, often involving such concepts as first cause, sustainer, and unmoved mover and claiming such attributes for God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. To the ignostic these abstractions, taken singly or in combination, cannot be said to be false; rather, they are muddled, self-contradictory, linguistically empty, or perhaps poetic. Hence, one cannot meaningfully expound on the existence or nonexistence of God.
The consistent ignostic, therefore, awaits a coherent definition of God (or of any other metaphysical concept to be discussed) before engaging in arguments for or against.
Friedrich Nietzsche suggested that the existence of a metaphysical realm is irrelevant because it cannot possibly have an influence on the physical realm.[citation needed] In the mid-20th century, logical positivists argued that the idea of God's existence was meaningless because it had no verifiable consequences.[6] One such positivist, A. J. Ayer, argued that one could not speak of God's existence, or even the probability of God's existence, since the concept itself was unverifiable and thus nonsensical.[7] Ayer wrote that this ruled out atheism and agnosticism as well as theism because all three positions assume that the sentence "God exists" is meaningful.[8] He also argued that the meaninglessness of theistic claims meant that there was "no logical ground for antagonism between religion and natural science,"[9] as theism itself does not entail any propositions which the scientific method can falsify.
- ^ Kurtz 1992, p. 196
- ^ Kurtz 1992, p. 197
- ^ Kurtz 1992, p. 220: "Both [atheism and agnosticism] are consistent with igtheism, which finds the belief in a metaphysical, transcendent being basically incoherent and unintelligible."
- ^ Drange, Theodore (1998). Atheism, Agnosticism, Noncognitivism. Internet Infidels. Retrieved on March 26, 2007.
- ^ God. Guide to Humanistic Judaism. Society for Humanistic Judaism. Retrieved on February 16, 2007.
- ^ Armstrong, Karen (1993). A History of God. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 378–79. ISBN 0-679-42600-0.
- ^ Ayer 1952, p. 115: "There can be no way of proving that the existence of a god . . . is even probable. . . . For if the existence of such a god were probable, then the proposition that he existed would be an empirical hypothesis. And in that case it would be possible to deduce from it, and other empirical hypotheses, certain experimental propositions which were not deducible from those other hypotheses alone. But in fact this is not possible."
- ^ Ayer 1952, p. 115–16
- ^ Ayer 1952, p. 117
- Ayer, A. J. [1936] (1952). "Critique of Ethics and Theology", Language, Truth and Logic. New York: Dover Publications. LCCN 52-860. ISBN 0486200108.
- Kurtz, Paul (1992). The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-766-3.
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