Ignosticism
Overview
Ignosticism (also igtheism or, in its philosophical form, theological non-cognitivism) is the position that the question "does God exist?" cannot be meaningfully answered until the word "God" has been given a coherent definition. Most definitions on offer are either so vague as to assert nothing ("God is love", "the ground of being") or contain attributes that are incoherent on inspection (timeless yet acting, changeless yet deciding). Until this is fixed, the ignostic declines to say whether they believe, because they do not yet know what they are being asked to believe.
The term was coined by Rabbi Sherwin Wine in the 1960s.
Notes
- This is the first move in my note on God: before I can say whether I believe in God, I need to know what is being claimed. It is why I distinguish between the classical definition, the modern apologetic definition, and the relabellings ("God is the universe") that do not count as god-claims at all.
- Ignosticism is compatible with atheism. For the definitions that are coherent enough to assess, I find the evidence insufficient and act as though no such being exists. For the rest, there is nothing to assess.
- The demand for a definition is not a trick. Nobody would accept "do you believe in blorf?" as a question that must be answered yes or no.