Atheism – the good, bad, and plain wrong.
I wanted to write on this topic as I said recently that all atheists believe that god does not exist. That’s not entirely accurate and I wanted to clarify it. It’s important in any conversation that we accurately agree to the definitions of what we are discussing. Only then can we make sure that we are arguing our position correctly. Imagine if two people were discussing the relevance of some ambiguous term and they both thought it had different meanings. They could spend hours discussing it and in the end they were saying the same thing.
So, on that note, lets make sure we all know what Atheism means. It does not unilaterally mean that those who are Atheists necessarily believe that god does not exist. The oxford dictionary definition for Atheism is very direct, the belief that God does not exist. However, that is a rather simplistic definition for a very complicated position and in fact, there are two distinct positions that Atheists can hold.
Many believe that Atheism is the absence of belief in the existence of gods. Simply put, they choose not to believe in what religions say. But, they are not going the next step and saying that God/gods do not exist. They simply, and very scientifically state, we do not accept your assertion. There is no proof. There is no evidence. Therefore we do not accept your statement that God exists. They do not then make the next step and say “we also say emphatically that god does NOT exist”.
The second position is of course the stronger of the two. They go ahead and state that god in any form doesn’t exist. Those are two separate and very distinct positions. One of them is a belief. One of them is good healthy scientific reasoning.
To say that you do not belief in the assertions of a religious order is a very valid position to hold. I myself do not believe in any of the statements of the Church of Scientology. Not one. Nor do I believe any tenants of the ancient Norse, Roman, Greek or Egyptian religions. Though the last four are very cool, I simply don’t believe in them. Does that make me an atheist? Partially, yes. But the definition for Atheism is very broad. It leaves no room for uncertainty. It doesn’t say ‘absense of belief for one god’ but rather all gods.
But those that hold to the oxford definition, to them I say you are simply wrong. Or rather, you have a belief system. Like it or not, you believe that God does not exist. It is virtually impossible to ever say something does not exist from a scientific viewpoint. Just not possible. So, if you hold the ‘belief’ that god does not exist then you have a belief system and not a scientific view. I believe one is called “weak atheist” and the other “strong atheist”. To me, one is called scientific and one hypocritical.
Does it really make sense to have a belief system wherein you are stating that another belief system is wrong? I find it to be hypocritical.
Now, I’m sure all the Atheists who read this will be up and arms. And if I have mis-spoken or presented something in error, by all means state it. The point of this posting is simply to attempt to better define the Atheist view. And to try to show some light on a very difficult topic. The term atheism really has lots of meanings when you talk to different people. Add in agnosticism, a term coined by a Professor Huxley in 1876, to largely mean those that believe there is no proof either way for the existence of a deity, and you’ve got a real mess on your hands.
I try to make things simple. To boil down all the arguments to the most simplist of levels. Either you believe God does exist, believe he doesn’t exist, refute the assertion of one or the other while making no statement yourself, or simply throw your hands up in despair I don’t know please leave me alone about it.
The point here is, dont’ assume you know what someone believes just because they say they are an Atheist. They may be stating they are based on one of two possible definitions or some other definition that may exist. Question them, find out what they really believe, and then have your discussion.
