Timeline for Is "agnostic" an appropriate substitute for "indifferent"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
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| Nov 14, 2014 at 22:56 | comment | added | Sven Yargs | Since gnosis in ancient Greek meant knowledge, the alpha-privative form agnosis meant without knowledge—or in modern usage, not claiming to have knowledge or insight into a particular subject. It's easy to see how such a term would get conscripted into discourse on religion, where knowledge shades into belief (or vice versa), but there is no requirement that it be applied solely to that topic. | |
| Nov 14, 2014 at 19:35 | comment | added | Oldcat | just because agnostic is loaded because of its use to categorize a type of belief in the Christian God doesn't subsume the other meanings. Its Greek for "no thought"..and can apply to any subject. | |
| Nov 14, 2014 at 19:32 | comment | added | R Mac | @Tunny can you share some such examples? | |
| Nov 14, 2014 at 19:03 | comment | added | tunny | @R Mac. I've read your edited post. Your view on the ridiculousness of being agnostic about every ay things is not shared by quite a few writers whose words are cited on the BNC, COCA and GWBE. | |
| Nov 14, 2014 at 18:51 | comment | added | R Mac | I was in the process of elaborating as you wrote your comment. | |
| Nov 14, 2014 at 18:49 | comment | added | tunny | Of the 29 COCA citations for agnostic about, only one is about religion (two if you count a belief in fairies as 'religion'). | |
| Nov 14, 2014 at 18:46 | history | edited | R Mac | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Big elaboration :)
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| Nov 14, 2014 at 18:41 | history | answered | R Mac | CC BY-SA 3.0 |