There comes a point when ambiguity becomes annoying.
For most people who know me, they are aware that my religious affiliation is agnostic. I believe there is a god, a higher power, and I believe that it is our responsibility as human beings to be good people, to be good to each other and ourselves. I am against organized religion; I think that whatever higher power is out there, I doubt he/she/it/they really cares what we classify ourselves as, as long as we try to be good to each other.
My friends, acquaintances, and peers accept this. I'm more than happy to talk about it. It isn't a taboo subject to me, and I'm not offended when I'm asked about it. It's never been an object of contention.
But thanks to Scholarships.Com, it has become one.
Like most college students, I'm broke as a joke. I am relying on online scholarship sites to find some obscure scholarships (like ones for left-handers!). I went through the usual questions marked with a big red unfriendly "REQUIRED" — age, college rank, major, GPA, ACT/SAT scores, and then I came to.... RELIGION.
Okay. It's required that I enter my religion. Now what?
Well, naturally I scan down the list for "agnostic." Not seeing it... oh. There it is: in the grab bag response of "heathen" religions. To be exact, the choice that included agnosticism was labeled:
AGNOSTIC/ATHEIST/NONRELIGIOUS
Excuse me? Because I refuse to claim one specific organized religion, I'm lumped in with atheists? I don't have a problem with atheists - they have their beliefs, I have mine, and that's fine. But the problem is this: atheists do not believe in a god. I believe in a god. They are two completely separate things, and yet, at the same time, I'm being forced to categorize myself with them?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Howard
Chelsea, you're overly sensitive about your
religious beliefs. As a Baptist, I have no problem with your being an agnostic, although I am truly sorry. A member of a religious body supports that body in some manner, as in time, attendance, and/or financially. As an agnostic, you don't join others of similar beliefs to build meeting places, schools and hospitals. I do not criticize your failure but point out that you are, indeed, in a pool of people that includes atheists and nonreligious. You do criticize, and the Lord knows we are an imperfect bunch. Sometimes I do take offense when a member of that pool attempts to take control of facilities and programs built by a religious organization.
2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Chelsea,
If I remember right, agnostic indicates someone who doesn't know if there is a G-d or not, and an atheist is someone who states flat out that there isn't one. An agnostic is someone who doesn't want to prove why he doesn't believe in G-d, so he shrugs his shoulders and begs out of the question.
If you believe in G-d, then why do you call yourself agnostic?
I'm not questioning your beliefs or condemning them, or anything like that, but wondering about the label.
3 - Christopher Rose
I support Chelsea on this; as an ethical, even spiritual, person who remains totally unpersuaded that gods have in fact ever existed except as metaphors, I resent being lumped in with faithists at all. Might as well have a category for astrology.
4 - Christopher Rose
Oh yeah, the book you chose rankles a bit. I seriously dislike the word atheist. It's a religious word that seeks to define me within its own arcane terminolgy.
I'm a person, a member of the human race apparently; if people choose to belong to whatever personal belief system they want to or were raised in, that's fine by me, but I dislike it intensely when one of these groups then seeks to label me. You're faithists, I'm not, end of story.
5 - Victor Lana
My feelings are very straightforward on this: there is absolutely no legitimate reason to ask about one's religion on an application. None!
Can you imaqine a category for sexual orientation? This too is nobody's business.
Political party affiliation? Shouldn't be an issue at all.
It's time that people's right to privacy is recognized and respected. Chelsea should not have been put into this situation, nor should anyone else.
6 - Anon
As someone already mentioned, you're most certainly NOT an agnostic. An agnostic would never state "I believe there is a god...". You appear to be a deist in the mold of Jefferson.
7 - Andy Marsh
When I joined the navy at the tender age of 17 I had to fill out all this kind of stuff.
I filled out all the paper work prior to my folks signing the papers and I had put down none for religious preference...
my mother looked at me and said...I remember it very clearly...you were born a fucking catholic...you were raised a fucking catholic and you're gonna die a fucking catholic...
I looked at the recruiter and said...
wait for it...
could you change that to fucking catholic???
my mom was pretty calm about it 8 weeks later when I got back from boot camp!
From my limited study into these things...I don't think agnostic is the word you're looking for...as an agnostic just doesn't know if there's a god or not...you seem pretty sure there is one...you sound more like a heretic to me...
8 - Andy Marsh
As far as the question of whether or not this question should be on an application for a scholarship or not and all these commenters freaking out about it...if it's my money and I'm offerring a scholarship to someone I think I can ask you any damn question I want! I mean, it is MY money...no?
9 - Chelsea Snyder
I don't have a problem answering the question anymore than I have a problem talking about my beliefs and ethics. It's just the fact that the answer I have to use is so broad and overly general, and inaccurate, that I have a problem.
I claim myself as an agnostic because I don't claim any one particular god, or gods. I think there IS a higher power, something overseeing everything. I do NOT believe in predestination or fate. I do not think religious affiliation matters and I don't believe in organized religion -- one of the many great concepts that we human beings dick up.
I don't know where I stand on religions because I'm 21 and still questioning a lot of things about them. So until then, I'll remain a skeptic and an agnostic.
10 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Actually, Chelsea, your self-definition would make you a deist and a skeptic, rather than an agnostic. Essentially, the deist believes in a higher power. You have a specific belief in a higher power, but no real specific beliefs on details except for certain things you do not believe in, like predestination. Don't worry, life and time will supply answers - and plenty more questions.
I don't see where that helps on your scholarship application though. Deist is not likely to be on the app. If I were you, I would go eenie meenie minie moe...
11 - ss
A short list of other major religions crammed together, and their most important commandments:
MusloJudeoChristoAmericanism:
"Yea and if against your brother thou hast not a legal leg to stand on, just smite him and take what ye will. And lo, If says anyone anything, invent a reason based on good intentions, after the fact, or else status as the real victim here."
CathloJudeaoMohamadism:
'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!'
Hindlims:
"Christ it's HOT. I mean HOT! Let's start a fire. You, knobby knees, where you goin'- hey someboby through him on the fire"
Manism:
"Just cover your face. And your legs. And you ovariesandyourarmsandyourvagina. But show me your tits. C'mon."
*Manism was originally invented by women.
Buddhacrackism:
If you've seen Menace to Society and Before Sunset you know where this one's going.
12 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
LOL, ss
13 - Chelsea Snyder
What, no cracks on Scientology?
14 - Matthew T. Sussman
You don't know the history of Scientology. I do.
15 - ss
Nah, that's like making fun of the Special Olympics.
16 - Matthew T. Sussman
ss, I now have an image of Tom Cruise wearing a trucker hat that says "WORLD CHAMPION" that just made my day.
I may need to consult Photoshop on this matter.
17 - Chelsea Snyder
Matt, Matt, Matt ... you're glib.
18 - ss
It finally occurred to me Tom Cruise might just be retarded.
That means I might be...
Uh-ohh
19 - Victor Lana
Quiet, please. L. Ron is turning over in his cryogenic chamber on the spaceship heading toward planet TOMKAT.
20 - Chelsea Snyder
ss, ss....you don't know the history of mental retardation. I do.
21 - ss
I was being crass and stupid Chelsea. Sorry.
22 - ss
BTW, I'm not an expert on the Unitarians, but as I (probably mis)understand it, at least one branch has no central dogma, or even really one theology. That may well mean they also have no scholarship programs (hippie church!), but you could click on it and check.
Or, if you don't mind being a little unethical, you could check different major religions, find out which ones offer the best scholarships, then become a member of that church.
If you believe in God but not dogma what difference does it make which building you sit in for a couple hours a week or who you donate the cans of soup through.
If they give the scholarship to someone who literally joined the church a week before they applied, it was probably about to go to waste anyway.
23 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Victor, Matt,
Is L Ron related to Enron? I know they had a lot of "n" somethings in Scien...
OOPS!! I better rap this up quick! I can hear the Scientology thought police tramping up the staircase now. Damn, I didn't know their triangulation was that good or that quiii....
24 - Victor Plenty
It's quite reasonable for Chelsea to define herself as agnostic. The literal roots of the word translate to "non-knowledge." The exact nature of this lack of knowledge is not clearly defined.
Some are agnostic on simply the personal level. Their statement of belief might be: "I don't know whether or not any gods exist."
Some assert that everyone is universally agnostic, whether aware of it or not: "It is impossible for anyone to know whether or not any gods exist."
Rather than be agnostic about the existence of the divine, some are agnostic about the nature of divinity, as Chelsea is: "There is a god of some kind, but the exact nature and will of that being is not known to me (or perhaps, not knowable to anyone)."
Agnostic and atheist are somewhat overlapping categories, from what I've read. The definitions are not simple if you listen to atheists debate amongst themselves. Add in the nontheists and the henotheists, and you've got almost as many possible variations as the number of Protestant Christian denominations.
For the purposes of a broad-spectrum multi-purpose scholarship application, the agnostic/atheist/nonreligious all have one thing in common. They are not among the intended recipients of many scholarships endowed by religious organizations. That is probably why they all share a single category on the application form.
If any agnostics every get organized and sectarian enough to endow a scholarship, and offer it to agnostics but not to atheists, they might persuade Scholarships.com to create a separate category for agnostics.
25 - Nancy
Just out of curiousity, what categories DID they have, and was "none of the above" an option?