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An agnostic is a doubter. The word is generally applied to those who doubt the verity of accepted religious creeds of faiths. Everyone is an agnostic as to the beliefs or creeds they do not accept. Catholics are agnostic to the Protestant creeds, and the Protestants are agnostic to the Catholic creed. Any one who thinks is an agnostic about something, otherwise he must believe that he is possessed of all knowledge. And the proper place for such a person is in the madhouse or the home for the feeble-minded. In a popular way, in the western world, an agnostic is one who doubts or disbelieves the main tenets of the Christian faith.

Clarence Darrow#38

BeliefDoubt

About this quote

What does it mean?
An agnostic doubts accepted beliefs. Everyone doubts some beliefs they do not accept, making doubting a natural part of thinking.
In plain terms
An agnostic is just someone who doubts.
What can you take from it?
Doubting beliefs is normal for thinkers.

Where it applies

  • religious discussion
  • philosophical debate
  • personal choice

Putting it to work

  • identify your doubts
  • respect others doubts

Questions to consider

  • Which beliefs do you doubt?
  • Is doubt a virtue?

Another view

Some define agnosticism strictly.

More from Clarence Darrow

  1. Valiantly he fought on every intellectual battlefield. True he bowed and dodged and lied over and over again, that he still might live and work. Many of his ad…

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  2. I am an agnostic as to the question of God. I think that it is impossible for the human mind to believe in an object or thing unless it can form a mental pictu…

    Permalink to quote #39
  3. No doubt there is much immature talking and hasty writing and will always be where liberty of speech and press prevails. The political, religious, and social v…

    Permalink to quote #36

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