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> If you don't want confusion you'd want to use atheism for belief no God exist and agnosticism to indicate you don't feel one way or another. Which I believe i

> If you don't want confusion you'd want to use atheism for belief no God exist and agnosticism to indicate you don't feel one way or another. Which I believe is what most people do. If you don't want confusion you spell out exactly what you mean instead of just using labels, since both "atheism" and "agnosticism" cover broad ranges of beliefs. With that said, "strong atheism" is generally understood to be a positive belief that there are no gods, "weak atheism" is understood as a passive lack of believe in the existence of god(s)—but with a bias against their existence in the absence of compelling evidence. "Agnosticism" meanwhile can be either a synonym for weak atheism (mostly through misuse IMHO) or the belief that it is impossible for anyone to know whether or not god(s) exist—with the connotation that equal weight should be given to both possibilities. The most scientific of the three positions is weak atheism. Strong atheism makes claims which can't be supported by the available evidence, or possibly by any amount of evidence, while granting equal weight to mundane and extraordinary claims runs counter to the scientific principle of seeking the simplest possible explanation consistent with the observations.

hunterb123 5y ago
> If you don't want confusion you spell out exactly what you mean instead of just using labels That's why I said "If you want to communicate the nuance of your beliefs without much explanation". Weak/strong atheism is another label too though, just a less known one. "Spelling it out" would be an explaining it. I've never heard of the strong/weak qualifiers and I would assume there are less people that have than have heard of agnosticism. It's a good classification of the spectrum of theism, but you would have to explain it, which is fine if you want an even higher degree of nuance vs the broader atheist / agnostic terms. You don't always need to communicate the nuance, sometimes you just need a quick general statement "oh no I'm atheist/agnostic" when asked if you're part of a religion or a similar scenario.

hunterb123 5y ago

> If you don't want confusion you spell out exactly what you mean instead of just using labels That's why I said "If you want to communicate the nuance of your beliefs without much explanation". Weak/strong atheism is another label too though, just a less known one. "Spelling it out" would be an explaining it. I've never heard of the strong/weak qualifiers and I would assume there are less people that have than have heard of agnosticism. It's a good classification of the spectrum of theism, but you would have to explain it, which is fine if you want an even higher degree of nuance vs the broader atheist / agnostic terms. You don't always need to communicate the nuance, sometimes you just need a quick general statement "oh no I'm atheist/agnostic" when asked if you're part of a religion or a similar scenario.