(May 25, 2016 at 11:55 am)Whateverist the White Wrote:(May 25, 2016 at 8:32 am)Ben Davis Wrote: That's fair enough but it seems that dictionary.com has attempted to conflate all the usages of antitheism in to a single definition. There are fuller ones available (eg. OED, Websters) but the basis is this:
Theistic position: There is/are a god/s
A-theistic position: Absence of belief in a god/s
Anti-theistic position: There is/are no god/s
That's where I'm coming from but I acknowledge the definition you listed as an accurate one.
Modern usage has Antitheism encompassing opposition to religious practices and religions themselves even though not all religions are theistic. It's a broad word so there's value in understanding all usages.
For me to adopt the antitheist stance that there are no gods I would first need to know what is meant by the word "god". If that is something out there and eternal with total causal control over everything and the decider supreme over moral matters .. then that is just ridiculous. But some theists hold more nuanced notions and I'm not ready to say they are wrong. So I'm just a garden variety atheist holding no belief in any god I've heard described, but not ready to render a categorical pronouncement based on so little.
Our positions are pretty close. I know that some gods don't exist. I believe that no gods exist, but I'm open to the possibility that I'm wrong about that.
If you told me that animists worship gods that are little piles of rocks, and that little piles of rocks exist, I'd say that a little pile of rocks isn't what I mean by "god." When I say I don't believe in gods, I don't mean that I disbelieve in everything anyone could possibly call a god. I have a friend who wonders whether hydrogen is god. I definitely believe in hydrogen. Some people think the entire universe is god, and I believe in the universe.
I just don't believe those are gods.
If you can leap over tall buildings with a single bound, does that make you a god? Maybe. I don't know. But if you can only leap over a fire hydrant, that definitely does not make you a god. So, if you can't do things that are extremely unlikely, you aren't a god.
So:
If you are unlikely enough to be a god, you presumptively don't exist.
If you are likely enough to probably exist, you aren't a god.
Those are just presumptions, but they make sense. They allow for the lightly-held belief that no gods exist.
If somebody shows me something that actually does exist, she'll need to explain in what sense it is a god.
In the meantime, I have the believe (not the knowledge) that no gods exist.
