RE: Is atheism a belief?
December 12, 2018 at 5:33 am
(This post was last modified: December 12, 2018 at 5:59 am by GrandizerII.)
(December 11, 2018 at 11:50 pm)T0 Th3 M4X Wrote:(December 11, 2018 at 9:56 pm)Grandizer Wrote: A-theism literally means not theism.
There are many versions of atheism. Which version are you referring to? I agree your definition is accurate, but it doesn't work in every situation because all situations where that term is invoked are not the same, and some widely differ.
Please elaborate.
Atheism, as literally defined, would be the umbrella term that covers all variations/manifestations of atheism.
(December 12, 2018 at 12:38 am)T0 Th3 M4X Wrote:(December 12, 2018 at 12:26 am)Amarok Wrote: Bollocks
From - Common Sense Atheism
‘Atheism’ is a much simpler concept than ‘Christianity’ or ‘Hinduism’, but the word atheism is still used in a wide variety of ways.
This can cause confusion. Someone may announce that she is an atheist, and her listeners may assume she is one type of atheist, when really she is a different type of atheist.
So to clear things up, here are 17 kinds of atheism, organized into 7 sets. Some kinds of atheism can be combined in a person, and some cannot. For example, it is perfectly consistent to be an agnostic, narrow, friendly atheist. But one cannot simultaneously be both a passive atheist and a militant atheist.
This list is not definitive. There are many ways to organize and label different kinds of atheism.
For brevity’s sake, I have substituted “gods” for the usual phrase “God or gods.”
Where's the problem exactly?
Most/all these sets would easily fall under the superset "atheism", no?
The only set that may not be a subset of the atheism superset would be narrow atheism, but it would still depend on how theism itself is being defined within a particular context. If theism is defined as belief in the classical God, then atheism covers all positions that do not accept that kind of theism. If theism is defined as belief in any god, then atheism would still cover all positions that do not accept that kind of theism.
In other words, atheism is defined in terms of how theism is defined. Whatever "theism" is, "atheism" is not that. So if you're an agnostic who nevertheless isn't a theist, you're an atheist in the literal sense.
That said, I don't actually agree with "narrow atheist" being an atheist if they believe in some god. So if I were the author of that article, I'd probably scratch that one out, because a person who believes in a god is still a theist in the usual sense of the term even though they may not believe in a Supreme Being.
