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Anon ruins christmas (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 months ago by [M] to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

Thanks, always have time for well organized pedantry. So 'weak' atheism is basically agnosticism with Occam's razor.

'Agnosticism is lack of knowing on the matter.' is a nice point, it's right there in the word. I'm not sold on '“Lack of belief” is specifically an atheist trait.' though, can easily apply to agnosticism as well (or not for those that do believe).

Personally, I'm happy to eclectically pick and choose wisdom from many religions (shame they so often ignore the source material in practice), but that doesn't make me believe in god/s, merely the psychological usefulness of some ideas. I'm happy to believe in said usefulness even without evidence beyond anecdotal, people are such a mess of contradiction.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Agnosticism is the belief that it is impossible to know if there is a god

    Atheism is the lack of belief that there is a god

    Some atheists might assert that they know there is no god, but that is not the meaning of atheism, though some people call that "strong atheism"

    On the flip side, one can be agnostic and think there is a god.

    Being both atheist and agnostic (what some people call weak atheism) is the rational position given that there is no evidence for any god (or other supernatural phenomenon) existing, but that you also can't design an experiment that the result of would let you conclude a god (or other supernatural phenomenon) does not exist.

    Occam's razor doesn't have anything to do with it. It is simply irrational to leap to believing things for which there is no evidence.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    I mean, much like agnosticism is derived from "not knowledge", "atheism" is derived from "not god". "Lack of belief (in a diety)" is the definition of atheism.
    The distinction between strong and weak, sometimes called "positive" and "negative", is "belief that there is not" vs "no belief that there is". Similar to how different strengths of agnosticism express "do not know" vs "cannot know". They both lack a belief in a god. An agnostic who does not believe is a type of atheist. Since they're compatible philosophies there's no contradiction or need to choose. Like liking chocolate ice cream and liking root beer.

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