Agnosticism

The "Key Issues" series aims to make available the contemporary responses that met important books and debates on their first appearance. These take the form of journal articles, book extracts, public letters, sermons and pamphlets which provides an insight into the historical relevance and the social and political context in which a publication or particular topic emerged. Each volume brings together bring together some of the key responses to the works. Until the 19th century, thinkers who entertained doubts about the existence of God were branded "atheists" and "infidels" and were usually subject to persecution. In late-19th century Britain however, a group of highly respectable thinkers emerged who used widely-accepted premises concerning the limits of human knowledge and the need for intellectual modesty to argue for the radical conclusion that theology is impossible, that we humans cannot know what (if anything) lies behind the veil of appearances. This volume provides extracts from the writings of agnostics such as Spencer, Huxley, Stephen, Clifford and Tyndall, and their theological opponents.