agnosticism

My purpose today is to explain why agnosticism ("I don't know if God exists") is not a suitable option. The following illustration may help:

Suppose a seven-year-old girl arrives home from school and reports that her teacher has questioned her belief in a moon made of cheese. When asked by her father what she believes now, she replies, "I'm not sure. I'm just confused about the whole thing.” It would be possible for the girl to hold these opposing thoughts in her mind for some time without a charge of inconsistency being leveled at her, because she does not have to act upon either of them. Not one of her daily activities is influenced by her position on the cholesterol content of the moon. To her, this is 100% an intellectual dilemma. It has 0% practical value.

Suppose she returns the next day saying her teacher does not believe in a real Santa Claus, and she again tells her father she has not yet made up her mind. Now the situation is different, for she has some decisions to make when Christmas rolls around. She must make a choice to write a letter to Santa Claus as if she is 100% convinced he exists or to refrain from writing as if she is certain he does not. Likewise, she must decide whether or not to sit in his lap and make her requests. She may leave him milk and cookies or decline to do so; she cannot do both. Because her belief in Santa Claus affects her on a practical as well as an intellectual level, she is forced to make a choice between the two at every step she takes. It is impossible for her in any activity to remain on the fence. She may, because she is confused, act one day as if Santa Claus is coming and one day as if he is not, and we may smile and write this off as part of a learning process that will end at the truth. None of us, however, will think it funny if she acts the same way twenty years later. We would expect her by then to decide which is true and to act, even if she has some lingering doubts, as if she's right.

Belief in the existence of God is similar to the second example. It is not like the girl's belief in a moon of cheese, a purely intellectual concept. It is more like the girl's belief in Santa Claus, an intellectual concept with practical implications. Every day we must decide whether or not God exists. No matter if we are 20% shy of certainty, we are forced in our individual actions to declare ourselves solidly in one camp or the other. We may be indecisive and inconsistent for a while, but within a reasonable time we should practice one or the other exclusively, even if our percentage of certainty remains unchanged.

For anyone to remain an agnostic for long is the height of impracticality. Eventually a decision must be made one way or the other. Then, and only then, can a life of meaningful activity begin.

Given this, it would seem the prudent course to remain a professing agnostic for as little time as possible. Admittedly, it is not uncommon to spend some time as an agnostic while sorting out the evidence for and against God's existence. After such a sorting has been made, however, it does not behoove the seeker to tarry there any longer. The time has arrived to stop balancing on the fence railing and leap to one side of the pasture. The time has come to begin to exist as either a theist or an atheist. 

The agnostic, of course, must make this leap based on evidence that is less than certain. But to choose one side or the other he must do, for to remain on the fence railing forever is lunacy. For one thing, nothing ever gets accomplished while straddling the fence. The work is done and the harvest gathered in the field. Secondly, it is impossible to stay on the fence 100% of the time. Every now and then a fence-straddler loses his balance and falls to the ground, sometimes into one field and sometimes into the other. He appears quite pitiful to workers on either side as he goes through his cycles: falling to one side, climbing back on the railing, then falling again to one side or the other. At one moment he seems to be a theist but later, when he plunges to the other side, an atheist. His existence serves no practical purpose whatsoever.

The agnostic, therefore, must make a decision and move away from the fence into one of the two fields. Only there can he have a meaningful existence. Only there will his life begin to make sense. Even there he can gaze occasionally at the laborers on the other side and, if the work yonder begins to seem more attractive, proceed to that field to work a while. You can rest assured, however, that in due time one side or the other will become his permanent home. That is how real life works, isn't it? We make choices, act upon them, reevaluate them, and finalize them through trial and error in the fields of life. Nothing is accomplished if nothing is chosen.

                                                               -5 Reasons: Why I Still Believe in God (Days 10-11)