If you are an agnostic, you believe that when you die...
Agreed, Rajan. I tend to think of them as being lukewarm. I remember a description in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy Novena that describes the lukewarm. God will spit them out.
An atheist REJECTS God - it's an action. An agnostic can't make up his or her mind definitively; at least that's how I see it.
The word agnostic means "without knowledge". More and more I lean towards thinking those who declare themselves agnostic are those who wish to be "blissfully", but purposefully ignorant; they wish to ignore God's call; his reach to draw them home to him. I realize there are those who truly wonder, for instance those who may have experienced a great trauma and say, "How can I believe in a God who allows this?" - an event that shakes their faith, but the vast majority of those "on the fence" are those who simply want to exist in a perpetual state of comfort; of floating, not putting in the effort to swim - to shore. For those who live this way, the common thing I hear is that there may be some sort of heaven, but that it's more of a state of a perfectly serene lake (of clouds perhaps) to float on in happiness - by oneself while maybe occasionally floating near relatives to say hello to, with God, or a god-like being monitoring and managing the water flow and temperature. This is an illustration of the variety of descriptions I have heard. I hear some, well most of these "agnostics" say that they do not discourage their children from learning about God and Jesus, but that they don't practice it. This to me says that these are mostly people who are trying to play the "get out of hell free" card at the end of their life - should God and heaven exist. We read about this in Jesus' words in Matthew 7:21-23: "Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and do mighty works in your name?' And I will say to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evil doers'." It bears a similarity to the parable Jesus tells in Mt. 21 about the two sons, one who says to the father, "No, I won't do this", but does, and the other who says, "Yes Father, I will do this", but doesn't. The first would be more of the true agnostic (truly without knowledge), recognizing a supreme authority, but ignoring through a lack of understanding his law while living to find what is true, good and beautiful by doing the father's will later, while the second is the son who is trying to activate his "get out of hell free" card by outwardly recognizing that his father's will is important, but choosing to ignore it to satisfy his own comfort.
So, in my experience from those I have talked with, I believe the basic sentiment of the agnostic on the afterlife is, "We'll cross that bridge when we get there - and I'm packing my "get out of hell free" card just in case". It is almost an impossibility to be a true agnostic for a long time. If someone is truly a follower of their faith (which is the genre we place agnosticism in) then the true agnostic would, in order to "live out his faith", seek to avoid knowledge so that he can remain without it. Once it becomes an act to remain ignorant then it is purposeful ignorance which, unlike being on the fence says while standing on a field of red hot brimstone, "I'd better build a fence to sit on because it's getting rather hot standing here".
