just because we haven't seen alien life

doesn't mean it doesn't exist

so I won't make an absolute statement about it

Again the burden of proof lies on the one making the claim. I can entertain hypothetical's all day but if it doesn't have evidence, there's no reason to believe in it.

I'm not making a claim really

I'm just open to the possibility

there's no belief in anything

its agnosticism

That's not what agnosticism is.

god may or may not exist = agnostic

god does not exist = atheist

Incorrect.

god does exist = theist

Agnosticism = the existence of a deity / deities cannot be proven nor disproven.

^

It's a position of knowledge, that's all.

that's a stupid way of thinking

how would you know if something could not be proven or disproven

You can be an agnostic atheist, but most people who call themselves agnostics are fence sitters

that pretend "both sides are ridiculous"

Gnostic = thinks the existence of a deity can be proven
Agnostic = thinks the existence of a deity cannot be proven
theist = believes in a deity that is apart of a religion or/and involved
atheist = disbelief in all deities

no one uses the term agnostic in the way in which you just defined it

By the criteria of evidence....

except a small group of people

You have to dive into epistemology.

if that is the "correct" definition

@lemoncookie They don't, but a lot of people misuse the word "libertarian"

as well

You can be a libertarian socialist

uh

Gnostic can also refer to Gnosticism

the Demiurge n shit

it's not really misuse, it just means the definition of the term has changed or has multiple meanings

Gnosticism deals with knowledge lol

They think they can know

I'm an atheist, but I think most people here know that

this sounds like a philosophy major nitpicking over terms

Well, I identify as an agnostic.

there's no way to know to the best of my knowledge if "god" exists or not

I'm not sure why people assume we can know anything about "spiritual" matters when there's still epistemic claims we don't know about the materialistic world we see.

how do you know that you understand the materialistic world as well as you think you do