So I'm an agnostic atheist and I have some questions about the Angelica's church. What does the church believe in and how is it different from catholic and Protestant ideologies? Quite a simple question really.
How can someone be both an agnostic and an atheist? The 2 appear mutually exclusive. Do you doubt in God but have some beliefs? (Bad joke sorry). But seriously, How do you come to find yourself both at the same time?
agnostic means i don't know if there is a higher power, Atheist means that i don't believe in one. There are many different beliefs within atheism,its a lot like Christianity in that regard; well, there's no overreaching and guiding moral code or rulebook you have to follow, as atheism only extends to what you believe as far as a god (or multiple gods) goes. and when i say that i don't know if there is a higher power, that doesn't mean your higher power. There are a LOT of other religions with other higher powers out there so yeah. . .
I am an Agnostic Theist, so I know what you mean, lol. If you want to know about the Anglican Church and its beliefs, I really don't see why Wikipedia is a sufficient way to learn! God bless.
You might be interested to hear that Ian Hislop, the English satirist, calls himself "An atheist with doubts, a CofE don't-know". Meantime his predecessor as the editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye, Richard Ingrams, has retuned to the CofE as a church-going member. I was an agnostic for 35 years before drifting back to the CofE
The essence of Anglicanism is to be found in the "Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral": i) The Holy Scriptures as containing all things necessary to Salvation; ii) The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of Christian faith; iii) The Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion; iv) The Historic Episcopate. It also seems to be assumed that to call yourself Christian you must subscribe to the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
Indeed, they might. A Unitarian friend of mine is not happy that her church is not invited to ecumenical services in our town.
Well, they would be wrong. Christianity does have - and always has had - boundaries. Non-trinitarian belief lies outside of them.
The problem being that no one can ever fully understand trinitarianism. It's one of those mysteries of faith.
What don't you understand about it? God is in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The doctrine of the Trinity appears implicitly in the New Testament, for example 2 Corinthians, 13:14
God is beyond our human comprehension by God's nature. How God expresses that nature via the persons of the three makes some sense, but nothing divine can be fully comprehended by humanity. Hence our need to accept on faith, and not always rely on understanding. As a comparison, I know that light behaves like a particle, a photon, in many circumstances. But in other circumstances behaves like a wave. How can this be? But it is. These things are in excess of my concepts to grasp. I worry when people claim to have a firm grasp on the divine, whether they are popes claiming power, or humans claiming special knowledge. I am not going after you on this, rather myself, just affirming that's my motivation for always tempering my certainties on anything related to God.
A good reply. I think I understand the Holy Trinity, but I certainly do not claim to have a firm grasp on the divine. And it's got me into trouble in the "Doubts" thread ()! But then we're both Anglican: thank God.