What's the difference between agnosticism and certainty?

Agnosticism


Definition:

  • (n.) That doctrine which, professing ignorance, neither asserts nor denies.
  • (n.) The doctrine that the existence of a personal Deity, an unseen world, etc., can be neither proved nor disproved, because of the necessary limits of the human mind (as sometimes charged upon Hamilton and Mansel), or because of the insufficiency of the evidence furnished by physical and physical data, to warrant a positive conclusion (as taught by the school of Herbert Spencer); -- opposed alike dogmatic skepticism and to dogmatic theism.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There can’t be something, someone that could fix this and chooses not to.” Years of agnosticism and an open attitude to religious beliefs thrust under the bus, acknowledging the shame that comes from sitting down with those the world forgot.
  • (2) Individually, they stood to declare their loyalty to the throne or to profess their monarchical agnosticism.
  • (3) Brexit: how a fringe idea took hold of the Tory party | Matthew d’Ancona Read more But Cameron was committed to a public position of agnosticism until the renegotiation was complete.
  • (4) I move for less censorship of "offensive" material, not more; more mocking of every religion and of atheism and its drippy twin, agnosticism, in front of which I plant my knee.
  • (5) To put it bluntly ‘doing something’ about global warming gathered strong political momentum in Australia.” Howard was full of praise for Tony Abbott for challenging what had “seemed to be the consensus” on the issue, saying – with a clear sense of approval – that Australians had now “settled into a state of sustained agnosticism … Of course the climate is changing.
  • (6) For years the population of US Catholics has gradually declined , according to researchers, in line with a broader trend of Americans walking away from religious institutions in favor of atheism, agnosticism and, especially, a category of “no affiliation”.
  • (7) Oddly, though, my gradual loss of faith and shift to agnosticism was counterbalanced with a growing appreciation for the positive source of meaning and empowerment that faith, spirituality, and collective religious practice can be in people's lives.
  • (8) AR: And in terms of the conflict between Darwin coming to a point of at least agnosticism from being religious, and Emma retaining her religion, how do you develop that sort of conflict between the two of you?
  • (9) The lessons on atheism, agnosticism and humanism for thousands of primary-school pupils in Ireland will be drawn up by Atheist Ireland and multi-denominational school provider Educate Together, in an education system that the Catholic church hierarchy has traditionally dominated.
  • (10) In Part I of this essay, I assess the fairness and cogency of three broad criticisms raised against 'principlism' as an approach: (1) that principlism, as an exercise in applied ethics, is insufficiently attentive to the dialectical relations between ethical theory and mortal practice; (2) that principlism fails to offer a systematic account of the principles of non-maleficence, beneficence, respect for autonomy, and justice; and (3) that principlism, as a version of moral pluralism, is fatally flawed by its theoretical agnosticism.
  • (11) (My own beliefs tend to veer towards agnosticism, with a healthy side of Buddhism.)
  • (12) Church of England = 33% Catholicism = 10% Other Christian = 9% Islam = 3% Hinduism = 2% Judaism = 1% Other religion = 3% Agnosticism = 17% Atheism = 21% Do you actively practise your religion, eg you attend regular religious services?
  • (13) Despite his own agnosticism, the vernacular "sorrow songs" became the privileged vehicle for expressing "the deep religious feeling of the real Negro heart" - the soul ofblack experience.
  • (14) Howard was forced to, at least temporarily, disavow his personal agnosticism by public opinion, which had been influenced by recent weather events.

Certainty


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality, state, or condition, of being certain.
  • (n.) A fact or truth unquestionable established.
  • (n.) Clearness; freedom from ambiguity; lucidity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) IT can, therefore, be excluded almost with certainty that the meat would contain such large amounts of hormone residues.
  • (2) Here's a certainty: When you play out your personal dramas, hurt and self-interest in the media, it's a confection.
  • (3) "Thousands of scientists and officials from over 100 countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming," the panel said.
  • (4) Analysis according to clinical importance, gestation at booking, maternal age, parity, birth order, ethnic origin, and certainty of gestational age.
  • (5) But in a country with an unemployment rate of nearly 70%, including many former child soldiers, there are no certainties.
  • (6) The type of semantic categories missing from the UMLS consisted mainly of modifier information relating to certainty, degree, and change type of information.
  • (7) Tests included recording the scalp EEG, visual and auditory cerebral evoked-potentials, the CNV, cerebral slow potentials related to certainty of response correctness in auditory discrimination tasks, heart rate, respiration and the galvanic skin response.
  • (8) However, there is no certainty that both of Ainu and the people in Ueno derived from the same origin, or that genetic drift due to endogamy in this village took place.
  • (9) However, there was no certainty about how the cuts will be distributed.
  • (10) These data suggest that, after discontinuing supplemental oxygen in patients with chronic airways obstruction, more than 25 minutes should elapse if a blood gas measurement is to reflect with certainty conditions during room air breathing.
  • (11) Metastasis from them has never been described like a certainty with histological evidence.
  • (12) The certainty of a strong genetic predisposition to malignant melanoma was first established over 35 years ago.
  • (13) It is not possible to decide with certainty, in the absence of typical infarction signs in the ECG and clinically, whether treatment-resistant angina is due to CHD or other causes.
  • (14) DNA analysis is expected to provide maximum certainty as to the phenotype of the fetus for approximately 60 per cent of the women; for another 37 per cent a rate of misdiagnosis of 4-5 per cent applies.
  • (15) It is a virtual certainty that the dermatologist will be called upon routinely to evaluate illness caused by occupational factors.
  • (16) Henry had hinted during a recent interview with French newspaper L’Equipe he could be interested in a future coaching role with the Gunners, and Wenger insisted on Tuesday that Henry’s return is a certainty when asked about a reunion with the former France striker.
  • (17) And there are consequences for the more than 30,000 asylum seekers already here, whom the Coalition says will never get permanent visas and who, at the moment, are being denied any visas or work rights or certainty because of a political standoff over the Coalition’s policy to give them “temporary protection visas” instead.
  • (18) For example, it is not known with any certainty whether the oscillations seen in fetal heart rate are highly organised, in reflection of underlying ultradian rhythms, or whether they are entirely random and haphazard.
  • (19) Their occurrence rules out any organic involvement almost with certainty, and allows abstaining from additional examinations, or keeping them within minimum limits.
  • (20) The popliteal artery entrapment syndrome can be diagnosed by computer tomography with a greater degree of certainty than by angiography.