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this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
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That’s atheism?
You either believe in god(s) or you don't. Orthogonally you might be sure of your beliefs or not.
Most self-described agnostics are agnostic atheists.
Jesus thank god, only one accurate comment in this thread on the difference between atheists and agnostics.
They are the answers to two different questions
Exactly.
There's also Ignosticism. They believe the question is underspecified because "God" isn't well-defined.
So you’re saying that agnosticism is a spectrum of atheism? That belief must be active - if you don’t specifically believe in a god(s) then you’re atheist, and agnosticism describes the level to which you hold that conviction? Seems like a very narrow way of looking at it. What about those who explicitly believe we can’t know if there’s a god (s)?
I’m interested in the source of your latter assertion as well, I’m taking it to be anecdotal?
No. I'm saying it's orthogonal, but that most self described agnostics are atheists. You can be agnostic and Christian, which, to a point, is even endorsed by the Catholic Church, but agnostic Christians usually just self label as Christian.
That’s strong agnosticism.
I've always thought of agnosticism as being "I don't believe in Gods," and atheism as being "Gods don't exist." It's like the difference between saying "I don't think that plan will work" vs "That plan won't work." One leaves room for you to be wrong, while the other doesn't.
Agnostics are "I don't know, probably not. It's impossible to know.".
Atheists are "I don't think there's a god, there's no proof".
Anti-theists are "there is definitely no god", and they have just as much evidence as believers.
Because I just discovered it on wikipedia I think is worth adding ‘Ignostic’ - the belief that frankly it’s pointless even discussing any of this unless you can first define a deity. Seems bloody sensible to me.
...who can't define a deity?
Ignosticism sometimes want you to also define what "to believe" means.
Why? You can see in the comment you replied to.
When you are ignostic it is interesting that you can also be, agnostic and Christian by some definitions and antitheist by other definitions... A schrodinger christian.
My hot take: If most atheists would use the same definition for God as most Christians do, they would consider themselves as Christians.
And most christians would be considered atheists if they used common atheist definition.
What is the definition for God most Christians use?
In my experience grown up Catholics usually internalize more abstract definitions of God. Something between Love, Wisdom, Conscience and Inner voice, Goodnes,...
From the catholics I have close enough relationships I figured they internalized this kind of definiton. And as a kid by often overhearing my parents "marriage group" I figured this is quite common.
There was also a research (not sure how valid) that asked christians to draw God. Kids drew Jesus or old man with a grey beard watching from the sky. However grownups drew something abstract, like symbols, hearts or colors....
But if you will ask christians for a definition of God they will probably give you a textbook definition while not really believing in it.
I'd like to hear this definition of god
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/25143640
Self-referencing Lemmy comment? Not as cool as the self-referencing tweet I saw many years ago
Sorry I meant to sent you this reply to someone else with the same question:
https://sh.itjust.works/comment/24471142
I think the problem with this is that while atheists may believe in those same concepts as christians, we don't make them to be about some divine being but part of just what we are as humans and animals
You used loosely defined term: "Divine being". Those things are IMO by the most grownup christians internalized definition of the "divine being". So this is the same thing and can be replaced.
I am saying most grown up Christians do not believe in an actual "divine being" (definition: a really powerful, physical, human like creature).
There is also a concept in Christianity that "God" is a part of every human.
Let me rephrase your comment in a few ways. Consider by the definition I am talking about: Love,wisdom,... = Concepts = Values = God = Divine being = part of humans.
"I think the problem with this is while atheists may believe in God, we don't make them to be about God, we just think God is just inside every human."
Or
"I think the problem with this is while atheists may believe in Love,Wisdom,..., we don't make them to be about Love,Wisdom,..., we just think Love,Wisdom... is just inside every human."
Ignosticism can make things annoying.
That would be pretty far from the actual teachings of Christianity, and from their actual holy book that is the very center of the religion.
What you're describing is more like "I was grown in a Christian culture, but don't really buy the religion". That'd make the person an atheist who's christian only culturally.
That is why there is a second part to my claim. Most Christians are not Christians by the common atheist definition of God.
Most grown up Christians read the book in a very figurative sense and strait up refuse or avoid parts that are inconsistent with their believes or even other parts of that book.
I argue that most Christians don't buy the whole religion. (For deeper response I would get annoying and ask you to define "religion", and then I can argue which parts and believes are usually internalized and which not)
That would make a person a-theist by your definition of deity. By the definition of "christian deity" I provided they are christian deists. By definition.
I would argue that most common internalized definition of God by Christians is different from the official Christian definition of God. And this would make most Christians atheist by the official Christian definition. But to argue that, we would have to agree on what is the official Christian definition of God.
Once you define God this implies also the definition of deism and atheism (if we do not get to annoying and ask about what "to believe" means).
There are also some subtle variations in agnosticism.
There's the soft variety that says "there is no proof that convinces me either way but I won't rule out that someone could come up with one".
There's the hard variety that says "I don't think it's possible to prove either way".
There's even a variety that says "it doesn't matter whether (a) god exists or not, hence there's no need for a proof".
But yeah, the core of agnosticism is that you don't believe the existence of (a) god has been conclusively proven or disproven and are unwilling to commit either way without that proof.
Seems like it’s gathered quite a wide definition but this is certainly how I’ve always understood it. If I was to ever start a cult I think it’d be based on militant agnostic fundamentalism.
Ah, interesting. Never heard the term "Anti-theist," but that does fit the bill a bit better.
My understanding was that atheism is the belief that there is no god(s), whereas to be agnostic is the absence of belief one way or another, i.e unable to prove or disprove existence of god(s). With this interpretation it's more scientifically rational (for whatever that's worth) to be agnostic than atheist.
The importance of such a distinction doesn't merit much fuss beyond freshman philosophy though since you get some atheists who are absolutely evil cunts and plenty of genuinely good people of almost all religions.
Atheism doesn't make any positive claims. It doesn't claim to know there is no god. That's anti-theist.
Atheism makes the negative claim of: none of your god claims has sufficient evidence, therefore I don't believe them.
Now, individual atheists themselves can say and do whatever. That's on them.
It's more like active opposition to a theistic religions. For example many people think that "there's no gods, and theistic religions are harmful to our society"
This is very stupid way to put it. If you make a claim, you should provide the proof to support that claim. The claim is that there is a god or several, yet no proof to support that claim, which means that claim is plain made up shit and the logical conclusion "there's no gods"
See also Russell's teapot
You have no evidence of no god.
You could disprove specific religions making specific claims, sure. But to say there is no god anywhere in the universe of any sort? That is not a claim you can prove.
Now if you want to reframe antitheists as anti-specific theology on Earth, then what you say makes sense. But you can't both propose a new definition mid-conversation, and then argue that my statement that was based on the first definition is stupid because you're using the second.
The claim is not "there is no god".
The claim is that there is a god, or multiples of them
There's no need to claim that there is no god? It doesn't make any sense to try to prove something like that. A claim requires evidence, extraordinary claims requires extraordinary evidence.
I don't know that to tell you. This seems internally inconsistent.
Yes, "there's no god" is not a claim, it's just the logical conclusion from all of this.
It's like concluding that daddy long legs didn't evolve from a Chinese dragon
"there is no god" is definitely a claim. It can be falsified with evidence (in theory. I don't think such evidence exists).
Perhaps you mean "I don't believe there's a god" or "I haven't seen evidence to convince me there's a god"? Those aren't claims. Those can't be falsified. They're opinions based on evaluation of evidence.
But we're quibbling over minutia at this point.
If your claim is that "there's no gods," then you're making a claim. The assertion that there are affirmatively no gods at all is in fact just as empirically unfalsifiable as the assertion that there is definitely at least one god. In my opinion, the only reasonable position is to not make any claims about the presence or nonpresence of deities in the first place.
Russel's Teapot is fun, but I prefer Starman's copy of Treasure Planet on DVD. Do you believe that I have a copy of Treasure Planet in my DVD collection? More importantly, if you answer no, is that the same as believing that I don't have a copy of Treasure Planet on DVD? I think it would be equally silly to affirmatively assert that I do in fact have a physical copy of my favorite Disney movie, as it would be to assert that I do not in fact have a copy of it. You would have to come to my house and look at my DVD collection before reasonably making such a claim.
There are no proof of god, there's nothing that suggests that there is a god or gods. There's only claims from some people that they've spoken with one. It's rather like sasquatch and loch Ness monster. It's the only logical conclusion that there's no gods
This funny exercise makes the assumption that I'm too lazy to come visit your house to see if you have that DVD. As soon as I come grab a cup of coffee and a nice piece of sweet pastry with you and check your film collection, I'll see if you were lying or not.
However, maybe this is the time you tell me that you borrowed the film to your cousin who lives abroad rather than admitting the lie. That'd be what Christians have been doing the past 2 millennias as we have made new scientific discoveries that contradicted priests talks about their DVD collections.
Even easier to explain than Pastafarianism though.
Yeah but you’d be surprised how people would hate you more for believing in nothing than believing in a bowl of pasta… even if it’s a fake believe in pasta that symbolizes nothing.
Hate is hater's problem, not mine
They have a way of making it your problem.
Or simply assume you didn't suffer enough yet. Because everyone who strongly suffers will start praying, right?
Just because i don't believe in gods, doesn't mean i believe in nothing. That's a common misconception that the religious like to promote.
There is a shade of meaning between “I don't believe” and “I don’t know how a person/I could determine that they/I affirmatively believe.”
I personally would interpret the former as non religious and the latter as agnostic, but it probably differs from person to person. Especially because non religious is often used to describe people who do not practice a religion, but may well still believe in it (though that would be non practicing for me).
Yeah, I think it boils down to this.
"Do you believe in a god or gods?"
"Yes" - Theist
"No" - Atheist
"I don't know." - Agnostic
Of course, many people would admit they aren't certain for yes/no, and so might qualify as an agnostic theist/atheist depending on how strict you are with confidence. Some agnostics will be more rigid and say the answer is inherently unknowable. Regardless, it still seems a lot simpler than having to explain a satirical religion you are pretending to believe in to someone.