The belief that God, even if he exists, cannot be known with certainty. Nowadays, however, the term is often used as a synonym for practical atheism, i.e., that God is irrelevant to the modern man.
While the term was coined only in 1894 by the naturalist Thomas Huxley to describe his own state of belief, its philosophical basis had been laid down by prominently by David Hume and Immanuel Kant. To this same camp may be included the later A. J. Ayer.
Philosophers of religion distinguish between "limited agnosticism," which claims merely that the existence and nature of God are not known, and "unlimited agnosticism," which asserts that God is unknowable. As Norman Geisler observes:
. . . unlimited agnosticism is a subtle form of dogmatism. in completely disclaiming the possibility of all knowledge of the real, it stands at the opposite pole from the position that would claim all knowledge about reality. Each is equally dogmatic. Both aree "must" positions regarding knowledge as opposed to the position that we may or do know something about reality. And there is simply no way short of omniscience that one can make such sweeping and categorical statements about reality, whether they are positive or negative. Agnosticism is negative dogmaticism, and every negative presupposes a positive. Hence, total agnosticism is not only self-defeating but it is self-deifying. Only an omniscient mind could be totally agnostic, and finite ment confessedly do not possess omniscience."
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