ignosticism
{{Short description|Idea that the question of the existence of God is meaningless}}
{{God |isms}}
Ignosticism or igtheism is the idea that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because the word "God" has no coherent and unambiguous definition.
Terminology
The term ignosticism was coined in 1964 by Sherwin Wine, a former Reform rabbi and a founding figure of Humanistic Judaism.
Distinction from theological noncognitivism
Ignosticism and theological noncognitivism are similar although whereas the ignostic says "every theological position assumes too much about the concept of God",{{harvnb|Lindsay|2015|page=73}} the theological noncognitivist claims to have no concept whatever to label as "a concept of God",Conifer, Theological Noncognitivism: "Theological noncognitivism is usually taken to be the view that the sentence 'God exists' is cognitively meaningless." but the relationship of ignosticism to other nontheistic views is less clear. While Paul Kurtz finds the view to be compatible with both weak atheism and agnosticism,Kurtz, New Skepticism, 220: "Both [atheism and agnosticism] are consistent with igtheism, which finds the belief in a metaphysical, transcendent being basically incoherent and unintelligible." other philosophers{{Who|date=March 2018}} consider ignosticism to be distinct.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{Cite journal|last=Conifer |first=Steven J. |title=Theological Noncognitivism Examined |journal=The Interlocutor |volume=4 |date=June 2002 |url=http://www.sewanee.edu/philosophy/Journal/Archives/2002/Conifer.htm |access-date=24 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040123040516/http://www.sewanee.edu/philosophy/Journal/Archives/2002/Conifer.htm |archive-date=January 23, 2004 }}
- {{cite web |last=Drange |first=Theodore |title=Atheism, Agnosticism, Noncognitivism |url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theodore_drange/definition.html |year=1998 |access-date=2007-03-26 |publisher=Internet Infidels }}
- {{cite book |last=Kurtz |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Kurtz |title=The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge |year=1992 |location=Buffalo |publisher=Prometheus Books |isbn=0-87975-766-3 }}
- {{cite book |last=Lindsay |first=James A. |author-link=James A. Lindsay |date=2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=chKeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT73 |title=Everybody is Wrong About God |publisher=Pitchstone Publishing |isbn=978-1-63431-036-9}}
- {{Cite news |last=Rauch |first=Jonathan |title=Let It Be |magazine=The Atlantic |volume=291 |issue=4 |year=2003 |url=http://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articles/apatheism_beyond_religion/index.html |access-date=2007-05-24 }}
- {{cite news |last=Spiegel |first=Irving |title=Jewish 'Ignostic' Stirs Convention; Dropping of 'God' in Service Deplored and Condoned |work=New York Times |page=62 |date=1965-06-20 }}