Agnosticism
<p ><b>Agnosticism</b> is the view that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_value" title="Truth value" >truth values</a> of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God" title="God" >God</a>, as well as other religious and<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics" title="Metaphysics" >metaphysical</a> claims—are unknown or unknowable.<sup id="cite_ref-Hepburn_1-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-Hepburn-1" >[1]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-RoweRoutledge_2-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-RoweRoutledge-2" >[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-3" >[3]</a></sup> According to the philosopher <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_L._Rowe" title="William L. Rowe" >William L. Rowe</a>, in the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of God, whereas a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theist" title="Theist" class="mw-redirect" >theist</a> and an<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist" title="Atheist" class="mw-redirect" >atheist</a> believe and disbelieve, respectively.<sup id="cite_ref-RoweRoutledge_2-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-RoweRoutledge-2" >[2]</a></sup>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Henry_Huxley" title="Thomas Henry Huxley" >Thomas Henry Huxley</a>, an English biologist, coined the word <i>agnostic</i> in 1869. However, earlier thinkers have written works that promoted agnostic points of view. These thinkers include <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjaya_Belatthaputta" title="Sanjaya Belatthaputta" >Sanjaya Belatthaputta</a>, a 5th-century <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Common_Era" title="Before Common Era" class="mw-redirect" >BCE</a> Indian philosopher who expressed agnosticism about any afterlife,<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-4" >[4]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Bhaskar_1972_5-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-Bhaskar_1972-5" >[5]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Ridgeon2003_6-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-Ridgeon2003-6" >[6]</a></sup> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protagoras" title="Protagoras" >Protagoras</a>, a 5th-century BCE Greek philosopher was agnostic about the gods.<sup id="cite_ref-Protagoras_7-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-Protagoras-7" >[7]</a></sup> The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasadiya_Sukta" title="Nasadiya Sukta" >Nasadiya Sukta</a> in the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda" title="Rigveda" >Rigveda</a> is agnostic about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_universe" title="Origin of the universe" class="mw-redirect" >origin of the universe</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-patri_8-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-patri-8" >[8]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Treharne2012_9-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-Treharne2012-9" >[9]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Schwab2012_10-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism#cite_note-Schwab2012-10" >[10]</a></sup>
Since the time that Huxley coined the term, many other thinkers have extensively written about agnosticism.</p>