RE: Atheism's Definition - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
December 3, 2013 at 4:26 pm
(This post was last modified: December 3, 2013 at 4:44 pm by Simon Moon.)
(December 3, 2013 at 4:16 pm)Vincenzo "Vinny" G. Wrote: 2) There is a difference between
(a) believing God does not exist, and
(b) not believing that God exists.
Exactly.
The first statement has the negation on 'exists', the second has the negation on 'belief'.
They both describe atheism.
Quote:3) What you're describing, both
(a) One can be uncertain as to the existence and/or nonexistence of a god or gods, and
(b) still disbelieve they exist.
are true of the proper definition of agnosticism but (a) is false on the proper definition of atheism.
Statement (a) is the true and proper definition of agnosticism.
Statement (b) describes atheism.
Why do you capitalize 'God'? Are you referring to a particular god?
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
