Saying I don’t believe in any gods is NOT saying, I believe no gods exist.”
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Dictionaries often list multiple popular usages but it is always a good idea to be sure you are discussing the same sense as the person you’re debating.
Atheism is the belief position, I don’t have a belief or decline belief because reasons. In my case I don’t believe in even one deity because I see no reason (evidence) to do so. But that isn’t the same thing as saying I KNOW there isn’t a god hiding under a rug someplace that I haven’t looked under. I haven’t been everywhere and everywhen.
Functionally that I think the “odds of gods” is so vanishingly low, is not in a practical sense different from just saying “there are no gods”. But this particular nuance does spare me from theists claiming that I’m “arrogant” due to claiming knowledge I don’t have. Technically they are correct, so I don’t stake a knowledge claim. This makes me an agnostic atheist.
Yes some who identify as atheist have their heads explode of this because they are for whatever reason comfortable claiming knowledge. And that’s fine.
This quadrant diagram has been floating around forever online, distinguishing agnostic atheism, gnostic atheism, agnostic theism and gnostic theism.
If you pin people down carefully, in practice most theism is gnostic and most atheism is agnostic. Gnostic atheists and agnostic theists are relatively rare birds.
If you would rather not engage with this nuance, you aren’t required to. Whatever floats your boat. But understand that many of your fellow atheists think about it rather differently than you happen to.
That is what I always tell the religious. So far, no takers.
Can a Scotsman be a true atheist?
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Then you’ve been hiding under a rock for 40 years.
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