Today we're going to talk about a concept in philosophy that makes a lot of people, including many philosophers, uncomfortable:
It's okay to not know the answer (Agnosticism).
The most common use of the term "agnostic" today refers to those who do not have a strong belief one way or another about the existence of a god, in comparison to "atheist" which is a strong belief that no such god exists. However, the actual concept of being agnostic just means you refrain from having a belief on a particular subject. This idea is very old, but rarely put into practice.
Sometimes, despite all the information at our fingertips, and all the different tools we can learn to use from epistemology, we just don't have enough evidence to support a belief on something. A very low-risk example of this is the weather right now in an uninhabited portion of Antarctica. Without looking up some kind of weather satellite that might cover the area, I have literally zero evidence to support a belief on whether or not it is snowing right now. As a result, I am agnostic on the subject; I just don't know, and won't claim to know.
That approach becomes harder and harder the more the belief seems to matter. A lot of people, for instance, hold a very strong belief over whether or not a particular political move was good or bad. Without an in depth analysis of the alternatives and effects of that move, it's hard to say. In that case, it's not unreasonable to be agnostic on the question, but often you'll be treated as if you're weak for not blindly supporting one side or another on the subject.
In the end, agnosticism helps us and those around us. If we don't know something, and can comfortably say we don't know it, we reduce the chances of people relying on under-supported beliefs that we may hold. It can also help others deal with the fact that they don't know some things. Not knowing is frightening these days, since it seems like we should be able to know everything since all the world's knowledge is often literally in our pocket, but that's not the case. It's okay to not know the answer to a question, and outside of school, it's generally not the worst thing in the world to not know something in the moment. If nothing else, you can say you don't know now, but you will find out.
Oh, and don't feel the need to use the term "agnostic" if you think it might make others uncomfortable. It's just a more academic way of saying that you don't know one way or another for sure. It can be a fun term to pull out in a friendly discussion, but don't feel obligated to use it.
Alright, that's enough for now. As I've said before, if you're following along I'll "see" you in the next post, and otherwise have a great day. Goodbye!
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