Interview with an Agnostic

I am a Christian and I have always had a desire to learn about beliefs that differ from own. One of the perplexing beliefs to me has always been agnosticism. I never could seem to understand how a group of people could choose to believe neither to believe nor disbelieve in something. After reading several articles written from an agnostic perspective, I decided to learn more about the agnosticism. An interview with an agnostic seemed the best way to do this. I e-mailed the author of the articles I had read, Brad Clark, to ask if he knew of anyone who would be willing to do me this favor. His response was quick enough. Mr. Clark offered to be the subject of my interview himself. The only thing left now was to prepare questions for the interview. (see attachment) Preparing the interview questions turned out to be a hard task because I had to make sure that they demonstrate that this interview was just going to allow me to understand the agnostic viewpoint more clearly.

Interview

The questions that I had come up with turned out as worthless as the tape recorder that I had brought with me. Mr. Clark told me to put both away. Mr. Clark proceeded to inform me of the history of agnosticism and his own personal beliefs.

Mr. Clark began by stating that "Agnosticism can be said to date back to the first and second centuries AD." Philosophers such as Plato and Protagoras believed there was no way to tell whether or not any gods existed. This belief turned into the definition of Agnosticism. Mr. Clark, along with other agnostics, believes that there is no way that a person can know if any god or gods exist. Brad Clark expands the definition of agnosticism to encompass the idea that there is no way to really know anything. This definition ties agnosticism to epistemology. Mr. Clark refers to himself as an "empirical agnostic, which means that, due to our (all humans) limited intellectual capacity, we are limited in our ability to perceive the outside universe outside of observable phenomenon". Mr. Clark explained that being an empirical agnostic means that a person cannot believe that a god exists because no one has ever seen one. Also, a person cannot believe that a god does not exist just because one has not shown itself yet.

Mr. Clark does not believe in the opposing forces of good and evil in the world. Instead he believes that the opposing forces are order and chaos. "Everything in the universe is held together by order, an order which could easily be attributed to an intelligent creator. However, the idea of such an intelligence and its abilities are far beyond human comprehension and therefore no one can ever know if 'God' exists," Mr. Clark argues. In opposition to the order in the universe chaos is found. In the universe, chaos comes in the form of entropy. This simply means that everything will eventually decay, whither, and die. This is true for all physical objects and Mr. Clark sees this as being true for our common morality. It is the entropy found in our society that Mr. Clark believes people are calling the struggle between good and evil.

Agnosticism, Atheism and New Age thinking are often seen linked together as one in the same. However, this is not true. Atheists believe that there is no God. The agnostics strongly disagree with this belief because they believe that there is no absolute truth about God. The New Age movement encompasses the idea the there are many paths to God. This is also in conflict with the agnostic belief. "How can a person believe that there are many paths to a being who may or may not exist?" Mr. Clark asks jokingly.

The Agnostic beliefs are very different from my own Christian beliefs. Christians have a firm belief in the existence of a good, merciful and loving God. Agnostics believe that not only is there no way to tell if there is a God there is also no way to know if that God would be a good, merciful and loving God or not.