Atheism, Agnosticism, Noncognitivism (1998) Theodore M. Drange
Suppose you are to answer the following two questions: (1) Does
the sentence "God exists" express a proposition? If you say no
to the first question, then you may be classified as a
noncognitivist with regard to God-talk. If you say yes to it,
thereby allowing that the given sentence does express a
proposition, then you are a cognitivist with regard to God-talk.
(Let us henceforth abbreviate these expressions, simply using
the terms "cognitivist" and "noncognitivist".) All theists,
atheists, and agnostics are cognitivists, so the second question
applies to them: is the proposition that God exists true or
false? You are a theist if and only if you say that the
proposition is true or probably true, you are an atheist if and
only if you say that it is false or probably false, and you are
an agnostic if and only if you understand what the proposition
is, but resist giving either answer, and support your resistance
by saying, "The evidence is insuffici