Misused Terms: Atheism
What is atheism?
In the truest sense, an atheist in today’s context is simply a person with no belief in any deity. The complication comes in that there are a variety of semantic nuances which alter, sometimes significantly, the philosophical position of being an atheist. For example: “person who does not believe in god” and “person who believes there is no god” are the two nuanced semantic phrases that express the difference in what is often called “weak atheism” and “strong atheism” respectively. While the difference seems small and insignificant, the implications of believing there isn’t something compared to not believing there is, can actually change the entire idea of what atheism is, in that one is a belief and one is a lack thereof. These two types are not the only ones, every atheist has some particular way in which he or she might prefer to express how they are an atheist or why.
Some of the following will likely draw fire from many atheists, particularly the agnostic ones; but I find these nuanced differences misplaced and irrelevant to atheism specifically. It’s a simple word a-theist,… not-theist. That’s it!
Do you believe in a supernatural god?”
“No” – Ok you’re an atheist.
“Yes” – Then you’re a theist/deist
And heres the one that’s gonna get me in trouble…
“I don’t know” – You’re an atheist, because you dont hold a beleif that there is a god….! (although requiring an additional adjective)
Further nuances and specifics are not inherent to atheism, nothing is – even the differentiation between strong and week. The details, they are simply part of the endless particularities that make us all individuals, instead they are treated almost like denominations of atheism, which I think most atheists will agree is not quite right. The differences between what are referred to as strong or weak atheism, seem to be more compatible with the follow-up to the first question:
Are you sure?
“No” Then you’re agnostic
“Yes” Then you’re just a theist or deist or atheist (depending on answer to first question)
“Don’t know”… How can you not know if you’re sure or not? Sounds like a No – agnostic
These apply regardless of how you answered the first question. If you answered yes to the first question then you would be theist/deist, and then answered no to the second, then you would be an agnostic theist or agnostic deist.
The point is that atheism is best restricted (or expanded, depending on how you look at it) to anyone that doesn’t hold a positive beleif in deities – the oft conflated notions of strong or weak are questions of certitude, the substantive differences of which can be clearly described adjectively by agnosticism.
And thats a great segway into the next segment, on agnosticism,… for whenever I write it. :)
<< Misused Terms: Introduction (not yet written) Misused Terms: Agnostic >>
I really enjoyed this.
All the evidence, as far as I can tell, points towards no deity of any kind, but in an infinite universe, maybe there could still be a god of the gaps. I just think that believing in such a god of the gaps is silly, since it helps to explain nothing about existence, meaning (of life), gravity, or why cheeseburgers are so good and bad at the same time. Bertrand Russell was my kind of atheist (regardless of what he labeled himself, in life): A teapot atheist.
Gustavo Keener
August 12, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I should read more from Bertrand Russell, its just that you look at his body of work and its like being given a bucket of sand and told to start counting. Where the heck to start. lol
Anyhow, I’m glad you liked it, and thanks for the suggestion (on twitter) regarding the blog and the retweet.
unTheist
August 13, 2009 at 2:44 am
This is how I’ve always understood it:
The labels “atheist” and “agnostic” are not mutually exclusive. They answer different questions. “Atheist” answers the question of belief; whether you believe a god exists or not. “Agnostic” answers the epistemological question; whether you can know if a god exists or not.
Using these definitions, nearly all atheists are also agnostics. I don’t know anyone who claims to know for sure that a god does not exist. They’re “teapot” agnostics to borrow Russell’s term. They find the existence of god so unlikely that they don’t believe in one, even if they admit that they can’t know for sure whether one exists or not.
Similarly, nearly all so-called “agnostics” I know are also technically atheists. At the end of the day, you either believe a god exists or you don’t. Saying “I don’t know” doesn’t make this question go away — you live your life as if god existed, or as if god didn’t exist. It’s one or the other.
So, the myth of “agnostic” as a middle ground between atheist and theist is false. Most self-proclaimed “agnostics” are just non-confrontational atheists, or atheists confused about the definitions of they words they’re using.
probabilityzero
August 12, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Yeah, much of this is straight forward – however if you notice how I opened in the intro. My point is that we dont use these words in this way. We talk about atheists… and we conflate not just details about their certainty but also their (our) social and political tendencies.
In a much later entry to this series, once the groundwork has been laid – I will try to show how this is potentially harmful.
I suspect thats when I’ll start to get some flack.
unTheist
August 13, 2009 at 2:50 am
Interesting. I’m glad I cleared up the misconceptions about the actual definitions of the words, but your point is actually more interesting. There is quite a bit of baggage that goes along with the word “atheist,” and for many people it does obfuscate the meaning. I tend to like relying on actual definitions, but it is worth noting that people ignorant (willfully or not) of these definitions can end up with misconceptions about us, which can lead to political or cultural problems. I’m looking forward to reading your further posts on the subject.
probabilityzero
August 13, 2009 at 4:11 am
You got it. The importance of this becomes clear when you hear person after person (typically converts to atheism) say they dont really believe in god, but refuse to take the label of atheist.
Part of that is certainly due to the traditional stigma, however as I indicated in the intro, there is no sense in fighting off the old stereotype only to force a new one onto it. There is absolutely no reason there cant be a plethora conservative or better yet, libertarian atheists.
I’ll stop there before I nullify the need to write a whole post about it.
unTheist
August 13, 2009 at 12:02 pm
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