|
| quote: | Originally posted by Moral Hazard
Unfortunately, my friend, atheism is the positive position that there is no god(s). The only one of these three classes of atheism (which have been developed as a response to the charge that atheism is unprovable) that is actually atheism is what has recently been termed "strong atheism," the other two are really agnostic positions which have been co-opted by people who style themselves as atheists.
|
Atheism is the BELIEF in the nonexistence of gods, just as theism is the belief in the existence of gods. If you asked somebody if they believe in god and they said yes, you would call them a theist. They don't have to claim that they "are 100% certain that god exists" to be a theist.
Strong atheism ASSERTS that there are no gods ("I know there is no god"), whereas weaker forms of atheism will merely eschew belief in gods (weak atheism) or act as though there are no gods despite the inability to disprove their existence (de facto atheism).
Many older philosophers (Antony Flew, for example) used the terms "positive atheism" and "negative atheism" to describe the exact same notions. You are describing positive atheism (aka strong atheism) above.
Being agnostic alone implies nothing about how one makes decisions. An agnostic might decide that he better obey some of the laws of religion "just in case" religion is true. A de facto atheist considers the probability of gods existing to be too low to warrant any action as if they existed. This defines the positions of many nontheists today. If you don't believe in a god, you're an atheist.
Gnosticism and agnosticism refer to belief about whether the existence of gods CAN be known. The scales of gnosticism/agnosticism and atheism/theism are really quite orthogonal, and any combination is possible. See Agnostic Atheism and Agnostic Theism.
___________________
I am nobody. Nobody is perfect. Therefore I am perfect.
|
