Saturday, November 16, 2024

What is your opinion on someone who identifies as an atheist or agnostic, but still believes in a higher power and attends church regularly?

Profile photo for Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi

First of all, a LOT of religious people, far more than you think, are agnostic. One can be agnostic and still believe in a higher power and attend church regularly. What one cannot be is absolutely certain that the god in question exists. This is what is known as agnostic theism, which is belief without knowledge, and if you see someone who is devout and still an agnostic, it is actually a sign that either the person is either culturally still a member of the religion OR that they actually have the purest form of faith in that they believe without being able to tell you WHY they believe, so you are really talking about two opposite ends of the spectrum here.

As for someone who identifies as an atheist, well, they definitely do NOT believe in a personal god but I suppose it is possible they might still a deist who simply believes in the power of the universe itself but they are going to be much more likely than not simply a cultural member of the congregation and just going through the motions while telling you that they believe when they do not. They also are probably an agnostic atheist who hasn’t gotten to the point of entirely ruling out the possibility that the god in question exist, so they may be hedging their bets that r are simply deciding to continue with the religion simply because they always have. By the way, a lot of people who attend religious ceremonies are in this camp as well. 

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