agnostic

• n. 不可知論者
• adj.不可知論者

接頭辞 a-, ない, ない。ここでは宗教的な意味で使われ、神は存在しないと信じる。

agnostic

agnostic: [19] Agnostic is an invented word. It was coined by the English biologist and religious sceptic T H Huxley (1825–95) to express his opposition to the views of religious gnostics of the time, who claimed that the world of the spirit (and hence God) was knowable (gnostic comes ultimately from Greek gnōsis ‘knowledge’). With the addition of the Greek-derived prefix a- ‘not’ Huxley proclaimed the ultimate unknowability of God.

The circumstances of the coinage, or at least of an early instance of the word’s use by its coiner, were recorded by R H Hutton, who was present at a party held by the Metaphysical Society in a house on Clapham Common in 1869 when Huxley suggested agnostic, basing it apparently on St Paul’s reference to the altar of ‘the Unknown God’.

agnostic (n.)

1870, "one who professes that the existence of a First Cause and the essential nature of things are not and cannot be known" [Klein]; coined by T.H. Huxley (1825-1895), supposedly in September 1869, from Greek agnostos "unknown, unknowable," from a- "not" + gnostos "(to be) known" (see gnostic). Sometimes said to be a reference to Paul's mention of the altar to "the Unknown God," but according to Huxley it was coined with reference to the early Church movement known as Gnosticism (see Gnostic).

I ... invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of 'agnostic,' ... antithetic to the 'Gnostic' of Church history who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant. [T.H. Huxley, "Science and Christian Tradition," 1889]

The adjective is first recorded 1870.

1. Vasari claimed with horror that he was，if not an atheist，then an agnostic .

ワサリは彼が無神論者でなければ、知ることのできない論者だと驚いた。

2.You grew up in an agnostic household and have never been able to bring yourself to believe in God.

あなたは不可知論を信奉する家庭で育ち、ずっと神を信仰することができませんでした。

3.We were essentially agnostic about how and when political cohesion came about.

実は、政治的結合がどのように実現され、いつ実現されるのか知りたくありません。

4.An agnostic is a doubter.

不明論者は懐疑論者である。

5.Catholics are agnostic to the Protestant creeds.

カトリック教徒はプロテスタント教義にとって、知られていない論者である。