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.
双语例句
1. Vasari claimed with horror that he was, if not an atheist, then an agnostic.
瓦萨里惊恐地说他若非无神论者，就是不可知论者。
来自柯林斯例句
2. You grew up in an agnostic household and have never been able to bring yourself to believe in God.
你在一个信奉不可知论的家庭里长大，一直都无法信仰上帝。
来自辞典例句
3. We were essentially agnostic about how and when political cohesion came about.
其实,我们并不想知道政治结合怎样实现,何时实现.
来自辞典例句
4. An agnostic is a doubter.
不可知论者即是怀疑论者.
来自辞典例句
5. Catholics are agnostic to the Protestant creeds.
