There are a number of issues here, some of which are better dealt with in the religious areas of the forum.
However, in passing, I think you need to be careful about phrases like
quote:
how can anyone truly be a 100% atheist or an agnostic?
An agnostic, after all, may be an agnostic as a result of thinking about precisely the reasons you have given.
For the atheist, the agnostic, or the religious believer these issues may only cause a problem if you expect an answer. But, as with any question, I susepct the really interesting issue is
quote:
how would I know what the correct answer is?
In other words, is the origin of the universe a question to which one could reasonably expect a detailed descriptive answer? I would say no - it is likely to be too distant in time, and too rare an event.
But is there a way in which an answer could be found? Well, perhaps. We may observe the creation of another universe at some time - but such an observation cannot be guaranteed or perhaps even reasonably expected. We may observe phenomena which appear to show processes which we can extrapolate to universe formation - like the Casimir effect which does show particles appearing apparently from nothing:
Getting something out of nothing | EurekAlert! We may theorize.
But in any of these cases can we reasonably expect a definitive answer? I don't think so. Many's the God lives in that gap.
Getting something out of nothing | EurekAlert!
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