That would depend on what you mean, but I think most atheists believe that the concept of God is non-disprovable (even though they often try to use various "proofs" against god's existence such as comparing him to leprechauns, etc.)
What's more important is what you mean though.
@Axis_of_Doom - Right, I would agree with you, with your latter point.
My definitions, as I understand them, is that a weak atheist believes that the concept of God is non-disprovable (as you said, most atheists) with strong atheists believing without a doubt (a fundamental atheism, if you will?) that there is no god, gods, or supernatural.
Implicit atheism would be, basically, anyone when they're first born or raised without any knowledge (or, I suppose, very minimal knowledge) of religion/gods - basically, who doesn't believe not because of choice but because they've never been given a reason to believe. And, of course, explicit atheism is the opposite.
So I'd feel like any sort of declaration such as "I'm considering atheism" would have to be explicit because consideration would have to use theories and probabilities and just general consideration of theism.
A statement such as "I am an atheist" is a bit more murky, of course, but (without any actual research whatsoever) I'd feel there'd be a higher probability of explicit atheism.
@thirst2 - Gotcha. A further point that I emphasize all the time is that one can be a weak atheist about certain gods and a strong one in relation to others at the same time. Still, *overall*, one can be weak or strong. I'd fall in the "weak" category with obvious exceptions.
Comments (8)
The explicit or implicit kind?
@Axis_of_Doom - The natural agnostic in me would indicate implicit, but I'd be hard-pressed for explicit just to spite.
@Axis_of_Doom - Err, rather, I was confusing implicit/explicit with weak/strong (it's late in Illinois, I'm afraid).
Wouldn't a declaration such as the above mean explicit by definition?
@thirst2 - You mean a declaration such as "atheist"?
@Axis_of_Doom - exactly
That would depend on what you mean, but I think most atheists believe that the concept of God is non-disprovable (even though they often try to use various "proofs" against god's existence such as comparing him to leprechauns, etc.)
What's more important is what you mean though.
@Axis_of_Doom - Right, I would agree with you, with your latter point.
My definitions, as I understand them, is that a weak atheist believes that the concept of God is non-disprovable (as you said, most atheists) with strong atheists believing without a doubt (a fundamental atheism, if you will?) that there is no god, gods, or supernatural.
Implicit atheism would be, basically, anyone when they're first born or raised without any knowledge (or, I suppose, very minimal knowledge) of religion/gods - basically, who doesn't believe not because of choice but because they've never been given a reason to believe. And, of course, explicit atheism is the opposite.
So I'd feel like any sort of declaration such as "I'm considering atheism" would have to be explicit because consideration would have to use theories and probabilities and just general consideration of theism.
A statement such as "I am an atheist" is a bit more murky, of course, but (without any actual research whatsoever) I'd feel there'd be a higher probability of explicit atheism.
@thirst2 - Gotcha. A further point that I emphasize all the time is that one can be a weak atheist about certain gods and a strong one in relation to others at the same time. Still, *overall*, one can be weak or strong. I'd fall in the "weak" category with obvious exceptions.
Comments are closed.