By Alvaro Chaser
A Proposed Symbol of Agnosticism
From my own observation of constant changing in the culture, I couldn’t help but wonder about the future of language, specifically regarding out methods of defining, even more specifically, of organized religion. What’s my motive for this? Well it comes from four main occurrences in recent history, namely: the rise, organization, and schisms of non-believing communities from atheist to anti-theists (i.e. Secular Humanism and New Atheism respectfully) , then the influence of Postmodernism (a movement in philosophy, literature and art, which questions the basic assumptions of Western philosophy of the ‘Modern’ era) creeping into religious institutions, most notably, Christianity. Then to a lesser extant, The continuous secularization of institutions once monopolized by religious institutions (i.e. schools), and The gradual outing and organizing of atheists clergy (e.g. the Clergy Project and Atheism 2.0). Another factor, in going into this comes from our instantly changing dialect, based both on time and regions. So in the spirit of William Shakespeare, I would like to present new words, that, in my hopes, will prove to be useful in solidifying people’s identity in metaphysical politics.
To get to my particular new word of the day, in the hopes it would provide more some context, I’d first like to present to you the following words starting with the word that became the catalyst for this series:
AGNOSTIC - /aɡˈnästik/ Noun: a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (such as God) is unknown and probably unknowable. Broadly: one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god. 2 : a person who is unwilling to commit to an opinion about something (such as political agnostics). First appeared as a word in 1869, From the greek word agnostos, which means “unknowable”, Biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, is believed to have possibly coined the term.
Up next is a word that, at face value, could be seen as the default antonym for an agnostic, which is a gnostic, but here’s the most fitting definition of the word as a noun:
GNOSTIC – /ˈnästik/ Noun - an adherent of gnosticism. Is believed to first appear as a word around 1587, it first came from the Late Latin gnosticus, which came from Greek gnōstikos meaning knowledge. Agnosicism doesn’t share any historical connection with gnosticism but rather with words such as prognosis and prognosticate.
So what is the definition of a prognostic then, I hear you ask? Maybe that can be the true antonym for an agnostic, I hear you say.
PROGNOSTIC - /präɡˈnästik/ Noun - something that foretells. (example: "a one-banded caterpillar is considered a prognostic of a mild winter") Is believed to have originated in the 15th century. It came from the greek word, prognostikon, which turned into the latin word prognoticum, then into the middle french word pronostique, and finally it made its debut in middle english, and it’s currently considered an archaic term.
Finally, I’d like to get out of the way, the words considered to be antonyms to an agnostic, the first being a believer and the second one is an atheist, which paradoxically, tends to be considered synonymous to an agnostic. There's a confusion to this in that, being an agnostic somehow resides between being an atheist and a theist, and even more confusing, having atheist to being both a synonym and antonym to an agnostic. So to set the recode straight, at least for myself, I would argue that both the theist and atheist need to be under a single umbrella, because they are both resolves to a notion that's technically not based on any knowable notion.
So, with those out of the way, I would like to present to you what I consider the best possible antonym, at this time, for agnostic.
ANAGNOSTIC - /an'aɡˈnästik/ Noun: a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (such as God) is known and probably knowable. Broadly : one who is committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god (such as theist and atheists respectfully). 2 : a person who is willing to commit to an opinion about something (such as political an-agnostics).(I’m just making this up here) from the greek word 'an-agnostos,' meaning “not unknown.” The basis off being an an-agnostic would be based on an understanding without the need for conscious calculated reasoning (i.e. intuition, a gut feeling, bias).
There is your New Word of the Day.
My proposed symbol for An-agnosticism (no charge) ;^P
Credit to:
Merriam-Webster, and Google for the definitions.
Rational Wiki for the symbols.