Many people are interested in distinguishing between the words agnostic and atheist. The difference is quite simple: atheist refers to someone who does not believe in the existence of a god or any gods, and agnostic refers to someone who doesn’t know whether there is a god, or even if such a thing is knowable. This distinction can be troublesome to remember, but examining the origins of the two words can help.
Agnostic first appeared in 1869, (possibly coined by the English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley), and was formed from the Greek agnōstos (meaning "unknown, unknowable"). Atheist came to English from the French athéisme. Although both words share a prefix (which is probably the source of much of the confusion) the main body of each word is quite different. Agnostic shares part of its history with words such as prognosticate and prognosis, words which have something to do with knowledge or knowing something. Atheist shares roots with words such as theology and theism, which generally have something to do with God.
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebSherwin Raymond was a lot of things: a doctor, veteran, lauded debate-team member, boxer, and hard-ass; and an emotionally distant, pro-woman, pro-gun, Jewish, atheist, short and sturdy, force-to-be-reckoned-with man. Katie Herchenroeder, The New Republic, 6 Sep. 2022 Among them is Kristi Robertson, a 33-year-old atheist in Oklahoma whose daughter discovered God and Christianity when her third-grade public-school teacher led the class in daily prayer. Hannah Natanson, Anchorage Daily News, 26 July 2022 Rushdie was born into a nonpracticing Muslim family in India but is now an unswerving atheist. Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2022 As his literary criticism coalesced around lifelong friends and boyhood enthusiasms, his romanticism became a way of valorizing his own efforts as a liberal interventionist and militant atheist, and thus hard to distinguish from egotism. Christian Lorentzen, Harper’s Magazine , 20 July 2022 In the departments of theology and charm, Hitchens’s legacy is hard to disentangle, since his atheist barnstorming ultimately became a work of high-concept performance art, to be very generous, or a disposable stand-up act, to be less so. Christian Lorentzen, Harper’s Magazine , 20 July 2022 When a deeply religious order of surviving humans threatens their atheist existence, the androids learn controlling human belief is much more difficult than anticipated. Sophie Hanson, Harper's BAZAAR, 24 June 2022 Around half of tech workers identify as atheist or agnostic, according to a 2018 Lincoln Network survey. Peter Rex, WSJ, 10 Feb. 2022 They’re joined by Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi), a technology contractor, atheist and gizmo genius who often provides comic relief. Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 5 June 2022 See More