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Why come up with such a convoluted scheme? The "I'm not atheist, I'm an agnostic" argument always sounds smug and disingenuous. Theism is belief in god. Atheis
by rue 16y ago
Why come up with such a convoluted scheme? The "I'm not atheist, I'm an agnostic" argument always sounds smug and disingenuous.
Theism is belief in god. Atheism is lack thereof. Agnostics claim that gods' existence is unknowable.
To co-opt Gervais' skiing simile: we have people who go skiing, those who do not, and then people who maintain it's impossible to know whether skiing actually occurs.
- DougBTX 16y agoI understood atheism as those who do not ski, and insist that there is no such thing as skiing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Definitions_and_distinctions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Definitions_and_distinc... Looks like my understanding was of "Strong Atheism", while the one Gervais describes would be "Weak Atheism".
- rue 16y agoSort of, yes. I dunno how many "strong atheists" there really are. The distinction itself seems borne out of a misconception. I think the "not skiing"-style example is very illustrative of the actual mental model atheists have, and importantly works relatively well in most languages to explain the concept of lack of belief which the "opponent" — someone espousing a belief — has a hard time understanding. So most atheists don't really insist that a god cannot possibly exist, merely that one doesn't according to available evidence, and as such can and should be ignored. Exactly in the same way I do not take into account leprechauns when making decisions, they are a non-factor. Edit: mind, I do agree there are some quite argumentative and belligerent atheists.