CULTURE, 06/23/99: RELIGION Shiva, Krishna, Zeus, God and cattle. All of these are common beings of worship. But the question is why? Why do people worship silly little multi- armed, bald, horned things that go moo? Agnostics have been questioning this for a long time, and have never found the right answer. But maybe that's the answer everyone's been looking for.

Since the beginning of time, some people have needed a certain crutch -an iron lung- that 'guides them through their life and shows them the way.' There have also been those that question this are dubbed agnostic. Agnosticism is the belief that there is no real evidence of any kind of god or gods. People come up with their own strategies around this belief.- or non-belief rather-- so they wont ask so many questions. This sometimes leads to blind faith, which is of no use at all. It is common to question things, like why is the sky blue, does anyone hear a falling tree in the middle of the forest, etc. But when someone asks a question like such as 'is there a God, and if so, which religion glorifies that God' people get hostile and label them as 'Satanists' or 'God-haters' when really they're just asking a completely relevant question.

Contrary to popular belief (mainly by those that follow the Christian religion), Agnosticism is neither Atheism which is the complete non-belief of any God or Gods, nor theism, which is the belief in a God or Gods, which can also be broken down into two categories: monotheism, which is the belief in only one God, and polytheism, which is the belief in two or more Gods). Some say it is a safe bet to believe in something, but what if that someone asks so many questions that they cant believe in anything because of lack of information?

Christians believe that if a person doesn't 'know' God and accept him into their heart, they will go to hell. I have talked to two ordained ministers about this possible scenario: Say a boy is a devout Hindu. He believes in all the Gods, reads and believes all of the Hindu religious texts, and practices Hinduism on a daily basis. He does not know God in the Christian sense. Will he go to Hell? I asked these preachers if the boy would go to Hell, and here is what they said:

"If the boy learns of God and accepts him into his heart, he will go to heaven."

That didn't answer my question. Nothing they said answered my question. It's like they tried to go around it; and they did. They didn't even acknowledge my question. I didn't ask them what would happen if he found God, I asked them what would happen if he never found 'Him.'

Agnosticism is the middleman of all religions. Agnostics cant confirm or deny what's really out there. Is it safe to believe, or to just not know What's really out there? Agnostics have the right idea because with all the name-brand religions in the world, they are the generic non- religion that doesn't have a clue, because there's no evidence.