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Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
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Boston University
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Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The university has more than 3,900 faculty members and nearly 33,000 students and it offers bachelors degrees, masters degrees, and doctorates, and medical, dental, business, and law degrees through 17 schools and colleges on two urban campuses. The main campus is situated along the Charles River in Bostons Fenway-Kenmore and Allston neighborhoods, BU is categorized as an R1, Doctoral University in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. BU is a member of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education, the University was ranked 39th among undergraduate programs at national universities, and 32nd among global universities by U. S. News & World Report in its 2017 rankings. In 1876, BU professor Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in a BU lab, American Civil Rights Movement leader and 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received his PhD in Theology from BU in 1955. The Boston University Terriers compete in the NCAAs Division I, BU athletic teams compete in the Patriot League, and Hockey East conferences, and their mascot is Rhett the Boston Terrier. Boston University is well known for hockey, in which it has won five national championships. The University organized formal Centennial observances both in 1939 and 1969, on April 24–25,1839 a group of Methodist ministers and laymen at the Old Bromfield Street Church in Boston elected to establish a Methodist theological school. Set up in Newbury, Vermont, the school was named the Newbury Biblical Institute, in 1847, the Congregational Society in Concord, New Hampshire, invited the Institute to relocate to Concord and offered a disused Congregational church building with a capacity of 1200 people. Other citizens of Concord covered the remodeling costs, one stipulation of the invitation was that the Institute remain in Concord for at least 20 years. The charter issued by New Hampshire designated the school the Methodist General Biblical Institute, with the agreed twenty years coming to a close, the Trustees of the Concord Biblical Institute purchased 30 acres on Aspinwall Hill in Brookline, Massachusetts, as a possible relocation site. The institute moved in 1867 to 23 Pinkney Street in Boston, in 1869, three Trustees of the Boston Theological Institute obtained from the Massachusetts Legislature a charter for a university by name of Boston University. These three were successful Boston businessmen and Methodist laymen, with a history of involvement in educational enterprises and they were Isaac Rich, Lee Claflin, and Jacob Sleeper, for whom Boston Universitys three West Campus dormitories are named. Lee Claflins son, William, was then Governor of Massachusetts, on account of the religious opinions he may entertain, provided, nonetheless, that this section shall not apply to the theological department of said University. Every department of the new university was open to all on an equal footing regardless of sex, race. The Boston Theological Institute was absorbed into Boston University in 1871 as the BU School of Theology, in January 1872 Isaac Rich died, leaving the vast bulk of his estate to a trust that would go to Boston University after ten years of growth while the University was organized. Most of this bequest consisted of real estate throughout the core of the city of Boston and was appraised at more than $1.5 million, Kilgore describes this as the largest single donation to an American college or university to that time
3.
Dutch people
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The Dutch, occasionally referred to as Netherlanders—a term that is cognate to the Dutch word for Dutch people, Nederlanders—are a Germanic ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a culture and speak the Dutch language. The high degree of urbanization characteristic of Dutch society was attained at an early date. During the Republic the first series of large scale Dutch migrations outside of Europe took place, despite the small size of the Netherlands, the Dutch left behind a legacy in excess of their mere numbers. The traditional art and culture of the Dutch encompasses various forms of music, dances, architectural styles and clothing. Internationally, Dutch painters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh are held in high regard, the dominant religion of the Dutch is Christianity, although in modern times the majority is no longer religious. Significant percentages of the Dutch are adherents of humanism, agnosticism, atheism or individual spirituality, as with all ethnic groups the ethnogenesis of the Dutch has been a lengthy and complex process. The text below hence focuses on the history of the Dutch ethnic group, for Dutch national history, for Dutch colonial history, see the article on the Dutch Empire. Following the end of the period in the West around 500, with large federations settling the decaying Roman Empire. In the Low Countries, this began when the Franks, themselves a union of multiple smaller tribes. Eventually, in 358, the Salian Franks, one of the three main subdivisions among the Frankish alliance settled the areas Southern lands as foederati, Roman allies in charge of border defense. On a political level, the Frankish warlords abandoned tribalism and founded a number of kingdoms, however, the population make-up of the Frankish Empire, or even early Frankish kingdoms such as Neustria and Austrasia, was not dominated by Franks. Though the Frankish leaders controlled most of Western Europe, the Franks themselves were confined to the Northwestern part of the Empire, the current Dutch-French language border has remained virtually identical ever since, and could be seen as marking the furthest pale of gallicization among the Franks. The medieval cities of the Low Countries, which experienced major growth during the 11th and 12th century, were instrumental in breaking down the already relatively loose local form of feudalism, as they became increasingly powerful, they used their economical strength to influence the politics of their nobility. While the cities were of political importance, they also formed catalysts for medieval Dutch culture. The various city guilds as well as the necessity of water boards in the Dutch delta and it is also around this time, that ethnonyms such as Diets and Nederlands emerge. This process marked a new episode in the development of the Dutch ethnic group, as now political unity started to emerge, consolidating the strengthened cultural, despite their linguistic and cultural unity, and economic similarities, there was still little sense of political unity among the Dutch people. However, the centralist policies of Burgundy in the 14th and 15th centuries, at first violently opposed by the cities of the Low Countries, had a profound impact and changed this
4.
English people
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The English are a nation and an ethnic group native to England, who speak the English language. The English identity is of medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Angelcynn. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD, England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become England along with the later Danes, Normans, in the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England was succeeded by the Kingdom of Great Britain. Over the years, English customs and identity have become closely aligned with British customs. The English people are the source of the English language, the Westminster system and these and other English cultural characteristics have spread worldwide, in part as a result of the former British Empire. The concept of an English nation is far older than that of the British nation, many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities. Use of the word English to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office for National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their national identity. They found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as English and it is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. Following complaints about this, the 2011 census was changed to allow respondents to record their English, Welsh, Scottish, another complication in defining the English is a common tendency for the words English and British to be used interchangeably, especially overseas. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say English, I mean British. He notes that this slip is made only by the English themselves and by foreigners. Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of Englands dominant position with the UK and it tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles. In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote, When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago and it meant indiscriminately England and Wales, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so, bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as Prime Minister of England Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of England except for a geographic area brings protests and this version of history is now regarded by many historians as incorrect, on the basis of more recent genetic and archaeological research. The 2016 study authored by Stephan Schiffels et al, the remaining portion of English DNA is primarily French, introduced in a migration after the end of the Ice Age
5.
Irish people
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The Irish people are a nation and ethnic group native to the island of Ireland, who share a common Irish ancestry, identity and culture. Ireland has been inhabited for about 9,000 years according to archaeological studies, for most of Irelands recorded history, the Irish have been primarily a Gaelic people. Today, Ireland is made up of the Republic of Ireland, the people of Northern Ireland hold various national identities, including Irish, Northern Irish, British, or some combination thereof. The Irish have their own customs, language, music, dance, sports, cuisine, although Irish was their main language in the past, today the huge majority of Irish people speak English as their first language. Historically, the Irish nation was made up of kin groups or clans, there have been many notable Irish people throughout history. After Irelands conversion to Christianity, Irish missionaries and scholars exerted great influence on Western Europe, the 6th-century Irish monk and missionary Columbanus is regarded as one of the fathers of Europe, followed by saints Cillian and Fergal. The scientist Robert Boyle is considered the father of chemistry, famous Irish writers include Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Bram Stoker and James Joyce, notable Irish explorers include Brendan the Navigator, Robert McClure, Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean. By some accounts, the first European child born in North America had Irish descent on both sides, many presidents of the United States have had some Irish ancestry. The population of Ireland is about 6.3 million, but it is estimated that 50 to 80 million people around the world have Irish forebears, historically, emigration from Ireland has been the result of conflict, famine and economic issues. People of Irish descent are mainly in English-speaking countries, especially the United Kingdom. There are also significant numbers in Argentina, Mexico and New Zealand, the United States has the most people of Irish descent, while in Australia those of Irish descent are a higher percentage of the population than in any other country. Many Icelanders have Irish and Scottish Gaelic forebears, in its summary of their article Who were the Celts. The National Museum Wales notes It is possible that genetic studies of ancient. However, early studies have, so far, tended to produce implausible conclusions from very small numbers of people and using outdated assumptions about linguistics, nineteenth century anthropology studied the physical characteristics of Irish people in minute detail. During the past 10,000 years of inhabitation, Ireland has witnessed some different peoples arrive on its shores, the ancient peoples of Ireland—such as the creators of the Céide Fields and Newgrange—are almost unknown. Neither their languages nor terms they used to describe themselves have survived, as late as the middle centuries of the 1st millennium the inhabitants of Ireland did not appear to have a collective name for themselves. Ireland itself was known by a number of different names, including Banba, Fódla, Ériu by the islanders, Iouerne and Hiverne to the Greeks, other Latin names for people from Ireland in Classic and Mediaeval sources include Attacotti and Gael
6.
Glory Road (film)
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Glory Road is a 2006 American sports drama film directed by James Gartner, based on a true story surrounding the events leading to the 1966 NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Championship. Don Haskins portrayed by Josh Lucas, head coach of Texas Western College, coached a team with a starting lineup. Glory Road explores racism, discrimination, and student athletics, supporting actors Jon Voight and Derek Luke also star in principal roles. The film was a co-production between the motion picture studios of Walt Disney Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Texas Western Productions and it was commercially distributed by Buena Vista Pictures theatrically and by the Buena Vista Home Entertainment division for the video rental market. It premiered in theaters nationwide in the United States on January 13,2006, Glory Road was nominated for a number of awards including the Humanitas Prize, the film won the 2006 ESPY Award for Best Sports Movie. The film presently holds a 55% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a rating of mixed or average from Metacritic, on January 10,2006, the original motion picture soundtrack was released by the Hollywood Records music label. The soundtrack was composed and orchestrated by musician Trevor Rabin, newly appointed mens basketball coach Don Haskins gets a new job at Texas Western College in El Paso. Lacking necessary financial resources, he makes an effort to recruit the best players regardless of race to form a team that can compete for a national championship. Some of the men he brings in possess skill, but are raw in talent when it comes to organized teamwork focusing on defense. In the end, his Texas Western Miners team comprises seven black and five white athletes, following initial victories against mediocre local teams, Haskins quickly discovers that he has to give his black players more free room on the court. Yet, the more victories his team achieves with its flamboyant style, up until this point rarely seen in college basketball, the more racial hatred mounts on his squad. This culminates in threats to his own family, the beating of a player while on the road, increasingly frightened, the team loses its last game of the regular season after the black players stop playing with passion. Thus, the Texas Western Miners finish the 1965-66 regular season with a 23–1 record, going on to the NCAA final, played at College Park, Maryland, they take on the top-ranked University of Kentucky under legendary coach, Adolph Rupp. Rupp, with a well-organized and better experienced all-white Wildcats squad firmly believes that his opponent stands no chance. In a close game, the Miners narrowly lead at halftime, the film ends with the players exiting the plane that brought them back to El Paso to the greeting of a raucous crowd. Josh Lucas as Don Haskins Derek Luke as Bobby Joe Hill Austin Nichols as Jerry Armstrong Jon Voight as Adolph Rupp Evan Jones as Moe Iba Schin A. S, the book details Haskins early life as a player and womens basketball coach. Like the film, it focuses on the 1966 Texas Western mens basketball team. It was reprinted five times in its first four months of release and was selected as an Editors Choice by the New York Times Book Review
7.
Seeley Booth
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Seeley Joseph Booth is a fictional character in the US television series Bones, portrayed by David Boreanaz. Agent Booth is a co-protagonist of the series with his wife Dr. Temperance Brennan, the character made an appearance in the Sleepy Hollow episode Dead Men Tell No Tales as part of a two-part Halloween cross-over with Bones. Booth is from Philadelphia but was raised in Pittsburgh, during many episodes he is seen drinking from a Pittsburgh Steelers coffee mug, suggesting he is also a fan of that football team. In his apartment Booth has a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey jersey of Mario Lemieux, Brennan how he attended game 6 of the 1980 World Series with his father, describing it as the best day of life. Little is known about his years, though it has been implied that he went through the public school system. He has been an athlete and sports fan since his high school days. His home and office walls are adorned with various sports including a signed picture of Bruins player Bobby Orr. Booth is the older of two boys and has a younger brother Jared and their father flew Thuds and Phantoms in Vietnam and moved to Philadelphia where he worked as a barber and eventually started a family. After his death, Booth found a Purple Heart medal among his possessions, indicating he was shot down. Their mother Marianne was a dancer and composed jingles for television advertisements, for the first three seasons, details on Booths family background were generally sketchy as he rarely mentioned his family members. He is still discussing his childhood and becomes especially defensive when asked about it. In Season 8 Booth bluntly tells Brennan that he grew up in a household of violence and hatred, when his younger brother Jared is first introduced, it becomes apparent that Booth was estranged from his family. Their father was an alcoholic, this was reinforced by the fact that Booth is able to almost instantly recognize suspects with a drinking problem even when they are sober. Booth used to protect Jared from their father when he became violent, one of Booths deepest fears and insecurities is that he would become like his father, which continues to trouble him to this day. It is implied that their mother was also subjected to abuse by their father as she mentioned to Brennan that she was thrown down a flight of stairs by her ex-husband. Eventually she left the family out of desperation, in the Season 8 episode The Party in the Pants, she contacts Booth for the first time in over two decades to invite him to her wedding. The boys were essentially singlehandedly raised by their paternal grandfather Hank, Hank had stumbled upon his son abusing Seeley and drove him out of the house. He calls Booth Shrimp as Seeley was a child then
8.
Katharine McPhee
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Katharine Hope McPhee is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She gained fame in May 2006 as the runner-up on the season of American Idol. Her self-titled debut album was released on RCA Records on January 30,2007, the albums first single, Over It, was a Pop Top 30 hit and was certified gold in 2008. Her second album, Unbroken, was released on Verve Forecast Records on January 5,2010, the album featured the single Had It All, which peaked at No.22 on the AC chart. It has sold 45,000 copies as of January 2011 and her third album, the holiday-themed Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You, was released on October 12,2010. The album debuted at eleven on the Billboard Top Holiday Albums chart while the single Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard AC chart. As of January 2011, this album has sold 23,000 copies, McPhee released her fourth album, Hysteria, on September 18,2015. McPhee has also established a career, co-starring in The House Bunny. She has played Karen Cartwright, one of the roles on Smash. Since September 2014, she has starred in Scorpion as Paige Dineen, McPhee was born in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Daniel McPhee, is a television producer and her mother, Peisha McPhee, has been a vocal coach on American Idol since 2011. The family moved to the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles when she was 12 years old, Peisha McPhee recognized her daughters musical talent and decided to train her. McPhees older sister, Adriana, has been a coach on American Idol since 2012. McPhee is of Irish, Scottish, and German descent, McPhee attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, where she performed in school plays and musicals. She attended Boston Conservatory for three semesters, majoring in Musical Theatre and she left college before graduation on the advice of her manager and returned to Los Angeles to try out for television pilots. McPhee was cast in a mall-based MTV soap opera pilot, You Are Here, MTV never aired the pilot and did not pick up the series. In March 2005, McPhee starred as Annie Oakley in a Cabrillo Music Theater production of the musical Annie Get Your Gun, McPhee was nominated for a Los Angeles Stage Ovation Award in the category of Lead Actress in a Musical. McPhee had a role as Paramount Girl in the 2007 musical film Crazy
9.
Veganism
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Veganism is both the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A follower of either the diet or the philosophy is known as a vegan, distinctions are sometimes made between several categories of veganism. Dietary vegans refrain from consuming animal products, not only meat but also eggs, dairy products and other animal-derived substances. The term ethical vegan is often applied to those who not only follow a diet but extend the philosophy into other areas of their lives. Donald Watson coined the term vegan in 1944 when he co-founded the Vegan Society in England, at first he used it to mean non-dairy vegetarian, but from 1951 the society defined it as the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals. Interest in veganism increased in the 2010s, more vegan stores opened, and vegan options became increasingly available in supermarkets and restaurants in many countries. Well-planned vegan diets can reduce the risk of some types of chronic disease and they are regarded as appropriate for all stages of the life-cycle by the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The German Society for Nutrition cautions against vegan diets for children, because uncontaminated plant foods do not provide vitamin B12, researchers agree that vegans should eat B12-fortified foods or take a supplement. The origin of the English term vegetarian is unknown, the earliest known use is attributed to the actress Fanny Kemble, writing around 1839 in Georgia in the United States. The practice can be traced to Indus valley civilization in 3300 -1300 BCE Ancient India, the earliest known vegan was the Arab poet Al-Maʿarri. Vegetarianism established itself as a significant movement in 19th-century England and the United States, a minority of vegetarians avoided animal food entirely. Lambe called animal food an habitual irritation, and argued that ilk eating and flesh eating are but branches of a common system, and they must stand or fall together. Sylvester Grahams meatless Graham diet—mostly fruit, vegetables, water, several vegan communities were established around this time. In 1843 members of Alcott House created the British and Foreign Society for the Promotion of Humanity and Abstinence from Animal Food, led by Sophia Chichester, Alcott House also helped to establish the British Vegetarian Society, which held its first meeting in 1847 in Ramsgate, Kent. Belongs to the more moderate division. The first known vegan cookbook, Rupert H. Wheldons No Animal Food, the consumption of milk and eggs became a battleground over the following decades. There were regular discussions about it in the Vegetarian Messenger, it appears from the pages that many opponents of veganism came from within the vegetarian community. This lent support to the position, although Gandhi himself drank goats milk
10.
Animal rights
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They maintain that animals should no longer be viewed as property or used as food, clothing, research subjects, entertainment, or beasts of burden. Advocates approach the issue from a variety of perspectives, the abolitionist view is that animals have moral rights, which the pursuit of incremental reform may undermine by encouraging human beings to feel comfortable with using them. Gary Franciones abolitionist position promotes ethical veganism and he argues that animal rights groups that pursue welfare concerns, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, risk making the public feel comfortable about its use of animals. He calls such groups the new welfarists, PETA argues that Franciones criticism does little to help alleviate the suffering of individual animals and also trivializes the efforts of workers in the field who handle cruelty cases. It also creates divisiveness within the animal liberation movement instead of focusing on shared goals, sentiocentrism is the theory that sentient individuals are the subject of moral concern and therefore are deserving of rights. Protectionists seek incremental reform in how animals are treated, with a view to ending animal use entirely and this position is represented by the philosopher Peter Singer. Multiple cultural traditions around the world—such as Animism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, the animals most often considered in arguments for personhood are bonobos and chimpanzees. S. Congress with the enactment of the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, Aristotle argued that animals lacked reason, and placed humans at the top of the natural world, yet the respect for animals in ancient Greece was very high. Some animals were considered divine e. g. dolphins, the 21st-century debates about animals can be traced back to the ancient world, and the idea of a divine hierarchy. Dominion need not entail property rights, but it has been interpreted, by some, contemporary philosopher Bernard Rollin writes that dominion does not entail or allow abuse any more than does dominion a parent enjoys over a child. Rollin further states that the Biblical Sabbath requirement promulgated in the Ten Commandments required that animals be granted a day of rest along with humans, correlatively, the Bible forbids plowing with an ox and an ass together. According to the tradition, this prohibition stems from the hardship that an ass would suffer by being compelled to keep up with an ox. Similarly, one finds the prohibition against muzzling an ox when it treads out the grain and these ancient regulations, virtually forgotten, bespeak of an eloquent awareness of the status of animals as ends in themselves, a point also corroborated by Norm Phelps. The philosopher and mathematician, Pythagoras, urged respect for animals, believing that human and nonhuman souls were reincarnated from human to animal, and vice versa. Against this, Aristotle, student to the philosopher Plato, argued that animals had no interests of their own. Theophrastus, one of Aristotles pupils, argued that also had reasoning. Plutarch in his Life of Cato the Elder comments that while law and justice are strictly to men only, beneficence. This is intended as a correction and advance over the merely utilitarian treatment of animals, according to Richard D. Ryder, the first known animal protection legislation in Europe was passed in Ireland in 1635
11.
Agnosticism
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Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the existence of God or the supernatural are unknown and unknowable. Agnosticism is a doctrine or set of rather than a religion. English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word agnostic in 1869, the Nasadiya Sukta in the Rigveda is agnostic about the origin of the universe. Agnosticism is of the essence of science, whether ancient or modern and it simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that which he has no scientific grounds for professing to know or believe. Consequently, agnosticism puts aside not only the part of popular theology. On the whole, the bosh of heterodoxy is more offensive to me than that of orthodoxy, because heterodoxy professes to be guided by reason and science, and orthodoxy does not. Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, positively the principle may be expressed, In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively, In matters of the intellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable, being a scientist, above all else, Huxley presented agnosticism as a form of demarcation. A hypothesis with no supporting objective, testable evidence is not an objective, as such, there would be no way to test said hypotheses, leaving the results inconclusive. His agnosticism was not compatible with forming a belief as to the truth, or falsehood, karl Popper would also describe himself as an agnostic. Others have redefined this concept, making it compatible with forming a belief, george H. Smith rejects agnosticism as a third alternative to theism and atheism and promotes terms such as agnostic atheism and agnostic theism. Agnostic was used by Thomas Henry Huxley in a speech at a meeting of the Metaphysical Society in 1869 to describe his philosophy, early Christian church leaders used the Greek word gnosis to describe spiritual knowledge. Agnosticism is not to be confused with religious views opposing the ancient religious movement of Gnosticism in particular, Huxley used the term in a broader, Huxley identified agnosticism not as a creed but rather as a method of skeptical, evidence-based inquiry. In recent years, scientific literature dealing with neuroscience and psychology has used the word to mean not knowable, in technical and marketing literature, agnostic can also mean independence from some parameters—for example, platform agnostic or hardware agnostic. Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume contended that meaningful statements about the universe are always qualified by some degree of doubt and he asserted that the fallibility of human beings means that they cannot obtain absolute certainty except in trivial cases where a statement is true by definition. A strong agnostic would say, I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, a weak agnostic would say, I dont know whether any deities exist or not, but maybe one day, if there is evidence, we can find something out. Therefore, their existence has little to no impact on human affairs. Agnostic thought, in the form of skepticism, emerged as a philosophical position in ancient Greece
