Confessions of a Student Atheist

Defining Atheism Plus More

July 8, 2009 at 4:46 pm (Atheism, Deep Thought, Theism) (Atheism, atheist, burden of, claims, define, definition, proof, religion, Theism, theist)

Introduction

So what is atheism?  What does it mean to be an atheist?  What is it really.  There are a lot of groups saying a lot of things about atheists and what they believe, but these groups are often wrong and usually have ulterior motives for displaying atheists in a negative light.  I want to explain exactly what an atheist really is, take it from me, I am one.  Wikipedia offers an interesting view on atheism, but I want to give my own.

An Atheist is someone who has a lack of belief in a deity, any deity, god or supernatural entity.  That’s it.  Atheists are defined by what they don’t believe, not what they do believe.  If you answer anything other than yes to the question, “Do you believe in a god?”  Then you are an atheist.  An atheist rejects the so called god hypothesis, the claim that there is a god, usually due to a severe lack of proper evidence to support it.

Different Kinds of Atheism

You may have also heard about, strong vs. weak or positive vs. negative atheism and to understand the main difference requires a little explaining of how we deal with claims when arguing a belief.  A belief is something an individual holds to be true, it differs from faith as faith is a belief held to be true with no evidence so support it.

Ultimately, god exists or doesn’t exist.  These are the two possible truth states of the universe if you will, there is no in-between, something can’t partly exist and partly not exist.  Along with each of these two possible states, there are two claims:

• Claim A – I claim that god exists
• Claim B – I claim that god does not exist

Now, this is where most people fall into the trap.  You can not accept a claim as well as accept a claim, meaning that someone who is not pursuaded or shown the evidence to support a claim will not believe it and will be in a position of notA or notB.  Atheists are notA.  There is a lack of evidence being shown by the theists, who claim that god does exist to sway individual atheists.  Atheists CAN hold claim B to be true, but they can also hold the position of notB.  It doesn’t matter if an individual holds the position of B or notB, as long as it’s notA, they are an atheist.

Strong Vs. Weak Atheism

The difference between strong and weak atheists is down to their view on claim B.  A strong or positive atheist is someone who holds the position of B, that there is no god.  A weak or negative atheist is someone who holds the position of notB, that the claim there is no god is unsupported by the evidence to believe in it.

A lot of atheists are of the weak variety, because proving that there is no god is very difficult, if not currently impossible because of a lack of a workable definition of god and(in my opinion) proving a negative requires perfect knowledge (i.e. knowing everything).

Agnosticism Vs. Gnosticism

Gnosticism and Agnosticism deals with views on knowledge.  A gnostic believes that it is possible to prove and KNOW that god exists or god does not exist.  That claim A or B is provable.  An agnostic believes that it is impossible to prove and know that god either exists or does not exist.  An athiest can be agnostic or gnostic and so can a theist.  Usually most atheists are gnostic atheists because obtaining true knowledge on the whole god issue is very difficult.  Yet many theists will happily assert that they KNOW of gods existance.

Which One Are You

There are 3 possible positions for an individual to take, these are:

• A and notB – This would be a typical theist, asserting that god does exist (A) and as such will not accept the claim that god does not exist (notB).
• B and not A – This is the strong atheist position, one who asserts that god does not exist (B) aswell as not accepting the claim that god does exist (notA).
• notA and notB – This is the weak atheist position, one who do not accept the claim that god exists (notA, thusly making them an atheist) but also does not accept the claim that there is no god (notB).

The position of A and B is impossible, because they are mutually exclusive, something cannot partially exist and partially not exist, if it could, then it may be possible.  But to instantly accept both A and B as being true would be someone lacking critical thinking skills, reasoning and logic, I extremly doubt there will be even one person in this position.

The Burden of Proof

Let’s deal with this issue now.  The burden of proof lies with the claimant, they made the claim, they need to prove it.  So anyone claiming A or B has a burden of proof on them to show it to be true.  People holding either notA or notB does not have to prove anything, this is skepticism at work, something lacking in our society today.  It is the non acceptance of a claim, until evidence is shown to support it, if the evidence is poor and unpersuasive, then it is perfectly reasonable to remain in the position of notA and notB.

Atheists will have to deliver proof, but only the strong ones when asserting the claim that god does not exist.  Weak atheists (the majority of atheists) do not, because they are simply being skeptical, awaiting persuasive evidence or proof.  Theists always do, because they hold the position of A to be true, this is a positive claim and as such requires evidence.