Agnoia and Gnoia
So strong are words when they are represented in their proper context and so damning when they are misappropriated. I am a believer and sold out that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I believe in the inerrancy of the Biblical Text, i.e., the Antiochus-Textus Receptus-Text.
This is my statement to a dear friend and colleague:
“Dear ….., this is the ‘genius’ of *agnosticism*: It is a term that has been misunderstood by our religious community. Amongst most church goers prevails an “us and them” attitude with “us” being the “believers who are saved” and the “them” as the unbelievers which include atheists and agnostics.
Such a term as ‘agnosticism’ has been disenfranchised from its original and proper usage. Many deemed the term, ‘agnostic’, as in relation to “disreputable, hedonistic, heathen, pagan, non-believing”, etc. Yet, for me to proclaim ‘agnosticism’, in the categories of sensible philology, etymology, linguistics, word usage and not cultural bastardization of words, etc. frees me up to be a REAL believer. I can say, “I don’t know what’s past this veil”, “I don’t know everything that should comfort those who suffer”, etc.
Technically, I most certainly could be called a “Christian Agnostic” because I am a Christian who doesn’t know it all. If I said, “out of the 2,253 inflectional forms of the Finnish noun, “kauppa” = “shop”, I don’t know the Genitive Singular 2nd person of said noun, I would claim the title of ‘agnoia’ and my rightful throne to honesty for the moment would be instantaneously bestowed to me by heaven and earth.
Well, concerning the Finnish noun, I just didn’t know that factoid—-darnit! I guess I’m an agnostic. Yet, I’m FREE from the anxiety of being a know-it-all. I’m free from keeping such a pretense.
I see the safety in claiming agnosticism within the Christian community because they all want to ‘save’ your soul. In such a social status I’m never in harm’s way of the social Guitiene. I can never ‘become heretical’ when I must already be a heretic. The JOY I have in conversing about ‘salvation’ in the original Biblical Greek to the ‘them’ or ‘believers’ is like, well, almost sinful… sigh..
All I want to do is talk of Christ and what He has done for me.
Title me, label me, label others, judge others, bestow your damnation upon them—- who’s the atheist? Who’s the agnostic now?
But…be careful…pulling this word “agnostic” from your “Wyrd Hoard” can remedy all ills, save anxiety disorders, relieve mental constipation, disinfect puritanical strained faces, save us from pretense, and dissolve depression! But, with a great price, maybe the ultimate price, this kind of Truth will set you and all of those who you TRULY love *Free*. Try saying it out loud: “I don’t know”. Feels good, huh?
