Agnosticism, << ag NOS tuh sihz uhm, >> is the belief that ultimate questions, especially those about the existence of God, cannot be answered. The term comes from the Greek word agnostos, which means not knowing. It was first used by the British naturalist Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869. Agnosticism reflects the point of view that reason and scientific evidence should be the sole guides to finding truth. During the mid-1900’s, the German American theologian Paul Tillich argued that a period of agnosticism—in the form of doubt—is a necessary stage before one can accept a meaningful faith. See Atheism ; Ingersoll, Robert Green .
