(October 7, 2015 at 10:41 am)robvalue Wrote: You guys are so lovely, thank youThere's that big smile again!
I agree "weak atheist" isn't the greatest sounding phrase. It could do with a makeover. I like to use those terms because you can be a strong atheist without being a gnostic atheist (although some people use those interchangeably). You can claim belief that there is no God without having to also claim knowledge of it. So I think "strong atheist" in this way is a more accurate representation of the more confident sceptic atheists who are happy putting God in the same box as Perfume Pixies and Spritual Karma Energy.
Maybe just spelling it all out is better, especially when dealing with people who are unfamiliar with the jargon anyway. It's just a shortcut term really.
There are alternate terms:
Quote:Positive atheism, also called strong atheism and hard atheism, is the form of atheism that asserts that no exist; negative atheism, also called weak atheism and soft atheism, is any other type of atheism, i.e. where a person does not believe in the existence of any deities and does not explicitly assert that there are none.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_a...ve_atheism
I personally like the terms "weak atheism" and "strong atheism," probably because I am used to them. "Weak atheism" is not claiming as much as "strong atheism" (in fact, a weak atheist need not really be claiming anything); hence, it is a weaker position, a less extreme position.
This is using "weak" and "strong" in a common way. One who takes a strong position on something takes a more extreme position than someone who takes a weak position on it.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.