"'Agnosticism', which is simply and solely the word for a disclaimer, a renunciation of both affirmations and denials about what lies outside the reach of human thought, is usually treated in practice as the ground for a virtual atheism, as by the Victorian agnostics, or for a virtual theism, as (in different ways) by Jaspers, Marcel, and Buber. It is a counsel of perfection to say that this is indefensible, for one has to come to a practical conclusion in order to live. Nevertheless, in all rigour, agnosticism is the only defensible position, and it does not advance anybody one step on the road to atheism or one step on the road to theism."