Hi Ray, Welcome to the group! Ive been waiting to ask an Agnostic this. Could you please explain to me in practical terms that I might understand....What is an Agnostic? Ive read dictionary definitions but I havent felt like Ive grasped the true meaning..... Thank you for considering my question! And to answer your question, I believe because I feel its truth....Not because someone tells me so...

I've always understood it as someone who doesn't believe in God but is willing to accept that it's an open question, not having been proven one way or the other. An atheist, meanwhile, just doesn't believe in a higher power or that there's the possibility of one existing.

As for your answer...I wonder if my lack of belief has to do with all the lies one is told in a lifetime, and whether we learn to trust anything without proof. Some people can do that; I have trouble with it.

Ray, thanks for posting this question, and for your thoughts on what it means to be an agnostic.

I have never really considered myself an "-ist" of any sort.

When someone asks me about beliefs, and INSISTS that I provide an answer, it usually comes out along the lines of "I feel completely at ease with not knowing whether there is-God or is-not-God."

Someone-- in a not particularly kind fashion-- once said "well, that makes you an apatheist!" (as in, apathetic about belief).

You mention the need for "factual evidence." But what IS that? Ever see the movie "Contact?" What is a "fact," and "to whom?" My dear friend Julia believes in God... because she had what she believes to be "a religious experience." And I absolutely do not doubt that "it" happened... to HER.

If I "believe" anything, it is that we each have to find whatever it is (Scientific explanations? A "parent" deity, aka "God?" Nihilism?) that gives us a measure of peace in our souls so we can sleep at night. Does that make me an Agnostic? Beats me...

~Peter

I believe that as a child I always felt inside that there was a God, then as my life progressed It was many life experiences that confirmed it. I was not raised in the church nor was I raised in an atmosphere that encouraged it. I believe in God and Jesus, simply because he has been there for me for 61years. It is not about church or religion, to me it is about relationship. My relationship with him. I would not want to try to get through a day without talking to him in prayer. He has always answered my prayers, he just says no sometimes. I feel he puts in my life what is good for me. Not what I want. I live my life trying to please him. Not to make points or to gain anything. I try to please him, because I love him . Just like you would love your Father. And I believe he is our Father.I believe that you are either open to the holy spirit, and you let him in , or you are not and you dont. I could go on and on , but this is what is right for me, I am not trying to sell it to anyone else. Everyone has to make that decision along with God. You asked, I answered

I believe that before there was 'science' there was 'something.' So I believe that there is 'something' greater than ourselves from which everything else derives. I believe it as an 'energy' not as a person, being or tangible. But there are far more questions than answers. This is the one that works for me.

Hi Ray and welcome to our group. No matter what has happened in my life, I have always felt I was never alone. Even at the darkest of times, I felt comfort, support and love. No matter how 'people' treated me, or treated my loved ones, I knew there was a higher order to life.