rainbow walking

The question of the existence of god or gods have basically two methods of approach: argumentation or evidentiary. Based on this, one can see that the critical review of their presentation determines an individuals level of skepticism from which these various designations of non-belief are derived. In theory they can be defined as distinct and separate critical positions but in practice (during application) they are almost indistinctive except in rare cases. The distinctions can be described as follows:

The Agnostic: Primarily critical of evidential claims. Non-committed to final rejection or acceptance of the theists claims. Views the question as essentially un-resolvable in any conclusive manner.

The Weak Atheist: Primarily critical of philosophical claims; committed to rejection of evidential claims as such, un-committed to a wholesale summary rejection of a resolution ever being possible in the theists favor.

The Strong Atheist: Summarily rejects the possibility of either argument or evidence ever being mounted in sufficient degree to conclude the issue in the theists favor. Not only critical of the arguments and evidence for theism but offers alternative arguments to replace theism.

It is likely that almost every skeptic in this forum has found him/herself appealing to all three of these distinctives at various times and under specific circumstances. You can draw your own conclusions from this point onward.

[ June 23, 2002: Message edited by: rainbow walking ]</p>

Synaesthesia

Philosoft
I very much agree. Strong atheists simply tend to be stronger in stating that they think God is a bad theory.

Media-1

What do non-natural entities, in general, look like? If you're going to say that something looks "natural" as opposed to perhaps looking "supernatural" could you provide some kind of basis for your evaluation?

Media-1

Autonemesis

I took Allan's quote in context, and understood the concept of natural universe to mean "the universe as described by other non-Christian/Jewish/Islamic theistic belief systems."

In other words - and this is my opinion not Allan's, though he may agree - the gods of other belief systems seem gratuitous in that the universe looks and behaves the same with or without them.

Vorkosigan

strong atheist: there is no god
weak atheist: lacks a belief in god
agnostic: no means exists to resolve question -- can be either atheist or theist

atheist: does not believe in god.

90% of all dictionaries contain strong and weak atheist definition; I just surveyed a whole bunch for an article on this topic.

As a strong atheist, I think RWs explanation is pretty close. The strong atheist believes that gods do not exist and proffers negative evidence, postive argument, and alternatives.

I do not think "Strong Atheism is as unhelpful as religion." That is a nonsense statement, since some strong atheists are in fact religious. You are aware, aren't you, that atheists can be religious without beliefs in god?

If we take your intended meaning to be "Strong Atheism is as unhelpful as theism" then you might make prima facie sense. You would be wrong, but at least you'd be halfway sensible.

Vorkosigan

Vorkosigan

Synaesthesia

A natural thing can be seen.

Jobar

Another way to define our terms-

A Strong atheist says God is an impossiblity, like a round square or a silent noise.

A Weak atheist says that God is unproven-but-unlikely, a concept with no evidence or referent, classifying Him with the Tooth Fairy (stronger) or with Bigfoot (weaker.)

An agnostic says that the problem is beyond the grasp of humans and simply cannot be answered with any hope of accuracy, at least with present knowledge.

It is possible to be an atheist for one or more God(s) or ideas of God(s), but not others. I personally don't think that strong atheism must necessarily reject ALL god-concepts. I for instance am a strong atheist with respect to Yahweh, but am agnostic to the concept of Brahman.

Panta Pei

Strong Atheism means never having to say "Praise Zeus" or "Mighty Thor, bring us thunder and rain for our crops!"

Thanks for asking...next.

tronvillain

Generally I just call myself an atheist, but if we divide atheism into "strong" and "weak" I generally call myself a strong atheist. I simply believe that God does not exist, just as I believe that unicorns do not exist, but in both cases I am open to evidence for existence.

HelenM

I never say those either, actually!

So I suppose there must be more to strong atheism than that...

love
Helen