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Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

In a nutshell quantify what Liberal agnostic means, what do they do or believe actually?

Asked by Hypocrisy_Central (26879points) July 12th, 2014

I cannot name, names, but in the profile of one current Flutheronian this person coined themselves as a Liberal Agnostic. I wonder what does a Liberal Agnostic believe or not? Are there other classes of agnostics; orthodox, conservative, moderate, etc.? How would you describe who a Liberal Agnostic is?

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18 Answers

Unbroken's avatar

This could be interpreted two different ways. As two separate ideologies or as the pairing without punctuation would seemingly imply as a descriptor of a type of agnostic. The only person who would really know the intended meaning is the person who wrote it.

Why don’t you just ask the jelly who wrote it?

SadieMartinPaul's avatar

I’m guessing that the person isn’t referring to some liberal form of agnosticism, but is saying that he/she is both liberal and agnostic. If you describe a big, old, red house, each descriptive word stands on its own.

canidmajor's avatar

Why don’t you ask the user in question? It might make for an interesting discussion for you. :-)

LostInParadise's avatar

There is a tendency for theism and conservatism to go together and agnosticism and atheism tend to go along with liberalism. It makes sense. If you are opposed to change and tend to see things as black and white rather than shades of gray then the Bible will provides support for your beliefs. Once you let go of certainty of a deity then there is less reason to hold onto the past and less reason to try to categorize things in absolute terms.

Response moderated (Unhelpful)
livelaughlove21's avatar

Well, that jelly is clearly me, and please refer to @FlyingWolf and @SadieMartinPaul for the most succinct answers.

GloPro's avatar

Quantify?

dappled_leaves's avatar

How to quantify a liberal agnostic? One person, but two descriptors.

cookieman's avatar

Exactly as stated above. Imagine a coma between the two words.

For example, I am a cookie-loving, agnostic Jelly.

Haleth's avatar

Liberal- socially progressive, welcomes change, seeks equality

Agnostic- a big umbrella word; definitions vary from person to person. I see it as someone who is logical and skeptical. Atheism may seem reasonable and plausible, but their logic-based reasoning won’t allow them to announce 100% belief in either side without actual proof.

Brian1946's avatar

@cookieman “Imagine a coma between the two words. For example, I am a cookie-loving, agnostic Jelly.” Did you become an agnostic after going into a cookie-induced coma? ;-)

cookieman's avatar

@Brian1946: No, that took a few years, but cookies are my new god. Shhhhhh… don’t tell my atheist friends.

Paradox25's avatar

From my experience it’s a label that a person frequently gives themselves when they’re simply indifferent to the topics of theology, intelligent design, scepticism, mysticism, etc.

Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

@canidmajor Why don’t you ask the user in question? It might make for an interesting discussion for you. :-)
I could have……..however, by now, she has chimed in. I was seeking a basic overview, of which I felt existed, that may have expanded further than what she would have thought.

@SadieMartinPaul I’m guessing that the person isn’t referring to some liberal form of agnosticism, but is saying that he/she is both liberal and agnostic. If you describe a big, old, red house, each descriptive word stands on its own.
OK, but there was no comma separating the two, so I took it as they were together, had it been stated as Liberal, Agnostic, or Liberal and Agnostic, I would have gotten something different from it.

dappled_leaves's avatar

@Hypocrisy_Central No comma because the words liberal and agnostic can be either adjectives or nouns. So just as the user said “I’m a liberal (adjective) agnostic (noun)”, she might have said “I’m an agnostic (adjective) liberal (noun)”.

Like saying “big (adjective) house (house)” – no comma there, either.

Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

@dappled_leaves Like saying “big (adjective) house (house)” – no comma there, either.
OK, but for clarity, some may get a different idea. There is no comma between big house, but one would not mistake it for the the big house, even if someone was describing the big house on Elm street. Had there been more info, it may have been clearer. She also mentioned ”career planning”, I could, without comma, take that as having a career but also into planning in general, but because it was together without comma, I took it as planning in a specific area; careers. It is the type of details I have found that meant a question flies or ends up in mod-land; at least for me, your experience may be different. ;-)

dappled_leaves's avatar

It’s really not that hard to figure out what was meant. Everyone who answered here managed it. Nor do I think most people would have trouble discerning “the big house” (on Elm Street) from “the big house” (prison) in context. If there’s no context provided, maybe the reader should accept that their first guess might not be correct, and keep an open mind. Or you could simply have asked the jelly in question.

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