When I see theists push back against someone calling themselves an atheist as opposed to an agnostic, they tend to bring up objections that would apply to empirical knowledge generally, not just to gods: things like the limitations of us as imperfect human beings, the idea that induction can't ever yield a perfectly certain conclusion, etc.
However, in other contexts, I see theists trying to make hay out of the "uncertainty" of agnosticism as if it's some sort of deeper doubt than just the everyday doubt around any sort of empirically-obtained knowledge... as if there's significantly more uncertainty, or a different sort of uncertainty, to declaring God non-existent than there is to, say, declaring a species extinct.
So a question, mostly for theists: how do you interpret "agnostic"? Do you presume an agnostic's attitude toward your god(s) is like the one we have toward extinct species (e.g. "I'd say we've pretty well ruled out that there are any passenger pigeons left, but I remember when they caught a live coelacanth after they were declared extinct, so call me only 99.9% sure... but that guy claiming to have a live passenger pigeon is definitely a crank") or do you presume that it's something else (e.g. "while we can't say for sure, I think there's real merit to those theists' claims about God that we shouldn't be quick to dismiss")?
Poll above, feel free to discuss below.
However, in other contexts, I see theists trying to make hay out of the "uncertainty" of agnosticism as if it's some sort of deeper doubt than just the everyday doubt around any sort of empirically-obtained knowledge... as if there's significantly more uncertainty, or a different sort of uncertainty, to declaring God non-existent than there is to, say, declaring a species extinct.
So a question, mostly for theists: how do you interpret "agnostic"? Do you presume an agnostic's attitude toward your god(s) is like the one we have toward extinct species (e.g. "I'd say we've pretty well ruled out that there are any passenger pigeons left, but I remember when they caught a live coelacanth after they were declared extinct, so call me only 99.9% sure... but that guy claiming to have a live passenger pigeon is definitely a crank") or do you presume that it's something else (e.g. "while we can't say for sure, I think there's real merit to those theists' claims about God that we shouldn't be quick to dismiss")?
Poll above, feel free to discuss below.