Agnosticism

Professor Taylor's mistake is in confusing agnosticism and doubt. Agnosticism is, as Dewey would say, a shadow cast by the eclipse of the supernatural. We must doubt in order that we may find out, not because some Murry, inaccessible and super-natural being lurks behind whatever we can know. In this case our doubting is a function of our intelligence, not a sign of a pale and impotent scepticism. Obviously Taylor means the desirable use of doubt. He should be more careful, however, in the use of his terms. In equating the two he has not only thrown out the dogmatic idealistic bathwater but also the naturalistic religious baby.

As Whitehead says, "Exactness is a fake" (Ingersoll Lecture, 1941). But he also says: "The fact of our religious vision, and its history of persistent expansion, is our one ground for optimism. Apart from it, human life is a flash of occasional enjoyments lighting up a mass of pain and misery, a bagatelle of transient experience." ("Science and the Modern World.")—