Wiploc

Bingo! It's not about probability; it's about belief. So none of the choices in the poll even address the issue.

When I was doing criminal defense, I simply stopped forming opinions as to whether my clients were guilty. I was always a weak atheist on that issue, regardless of what I thought the odds were.


crc

Wiploc

Dlugar's weak atheists sound a lot like that. They something supremely unlikely, something they are fully warranted in believing to be false, but they never quite say that they don't believe it. Instead, they call themselves weak atheists, as if they don't want to admit to a belief that isn't 100% proven, as if they think religious beliefs require stronger justifications that other beliefs. But, without cross-examining them on whether they really have the belief they have hinted at, one cannot tell whether they are really weak atheists.

crc

Dlugar

Why do you think they necessarily "think religious beliefs require stronger justifications than other beliefs"? Perhaps a weak atheist with respect to the Christian God would also be a weak atheist with respect to Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

Also, why do you think a weak atheist who doesn't want to admit to a belief that isn't 100% proven would "really" be a strong atheist? From all the definitions I've seen, and the strong and weak atheists I've heard from, it seems perfectly reasonable for two individuals to believe the existence of God is exactly as unlikely as the other one believes, and yet one be a strong atheist (voices his belief by affirming the statement, "God does not exist") and the other be a weak atheist (by not affirming the statement).

WWJD4aKlondikeBar

"Weak atheist" is a term that must have been invented by ignorant gnostic atheists just dying to call themselves "strong". Or is it that they didn't want to spend the effort on pronouncing two more syllables and state our proper definition, "agnostic atheist"? Really, what the fuck is the use of these neo-idioms?

Don't fret, gnostic atheists. Being 99.9999999% certain is as good as 100 to me and you don't have to look like a fool declaring something you can't prove. Leave that to theists.

Dlugar

Easy, there, turbo! There are plenty of people who self-describe as "weak atheist", I really don't think the term was made up by a bunch of scheming gnostic atheists in smoke-filled back rooms.

All I'm after is to try and figure out what those who self-describe as "weak atheist" really believe--I'm not trying to pigeon-hole weak atheists into some particular category that I want them to be in, nor am I trying to pigeon-hole people who don't self-describe as weak atheists as weak atheists (a la "You're really a weak atheist, you just don't want to admit it!"). I'm just interested in the spectrum of belief and the terms we humans use to categorize ourselves on that spectrum.

RAFH

I'm the super ultra mega extra extremely very strong not-so-weak kind of weak atheist.

JurgenBM

To me, a phrase like "I prayed to God" is like "My heart was aching". The 'heart' in the second statement is very much real to the person who says it, even though what he means (not the the hollow, muscular organ in vertebrates, responsible for pumping blood through the blood vessels by repeated) doesn't actually physically exist. 'God' is much the same; part of the perception of a person. God, religiously, is a supernatural / preternatural entity, which means that he will never be proven to naturally exist. Asking whether or not God exists is asking the wrong question though, if you mean existence in a scientific way. The question is whether or not you 'experience' him (like you can experience an aching heart), which depends on your nature and nurture.

Since I dont commit to any God I'm an atheist (strong, weak, I dont care), but moreover I'm a relativist.

Dlugar

I'm beginning to doubt that there's any other kind ...

Mr Carcer

It all depends on which god or gods we are talking about.

Dlugar

From my response to Steven, the poll question should more completely read:

"If, with regard to any particular deity, deities, or concept of god in general, you consider the phrase 'weak atheist' to best describe your position with regard to that deity, which of the following statements best describes where, along the spectrum of all possible weak atheists, you fall?"

If I could edit the original post to include this, I would.