jarofthoughts
Empirical Curmudgeon
This short piece is written to deal with the argument stating, often quite vocally, that Atheists are just as bad as Theists who claim with certainty that there is a god. This, they assess, is because it is impossible to prove the non-existence of God, and an Atheist who made such an absolute claim would indeed be out of his or her depth. Therefore, some argue, the only viable position is to be an Agnostic. In the minds of some people there is a degree ranging from Atheist to Agnostic to Theist. On both sides of the fence, this sort of argumentation stems from a misunderstanding of what the words actually mean.
Notice: I am using the Oxford Online English Dictionary for all word definitions.
The term Atheism is defined as the belief that God does not exist. Notice the word belief. That means that being an Atheist does not in any way indicate knowledge about the non-existence of god.
Likewise, the term Theism is defined as belief in the existence of a god or gods, specifically of a creator who intervenes in the universe. That last part of the sentence is important because it represents the dividing line between a Theist and a Deist. But like in the Atheism example, the active word is belief, not knowledge.
The word Gnostic comes from the Greek gnostikos and means to know, and likewise the connotation Agnostic means not to know. Therefore someone who considers themselves to be a Gnostic implies that they are absolutely certain about the subject at hand, while someone who uses the term Agnostic implies that they are not certain. This leads to the conclusion that no-one is just an Atheist or a Theist, and similarly that no-one is just an Agnostic or a Gnostic, at least in relation to this subject.
So, to sum up, one is either an Agnostic Atheist, a Gnostic Atheist, an Agnostic Theist or a Gnostic Theist. The first word implies the certainty with which you hold your position and the second implies the position itself. Its as simple as that. Still, this position might change depending on which god one is talking about. Unless one was to find that a person believes in all gods everywhere (there are thousands of religions, some with thousands of gods), that person is an Atheist with regards to some, usually most, gods.
Just sayin'...
Notice: I am using the Oxford Online English Dictionary for all word definitions.
The term Atheism is defined as the belief that God does not exist. Notice the word belief. That means that being an Atheist does not in any way indicate knowledge about the non-existence of god.
Likewise, the term Theism is defined as belief in the existence of a god or gods, specifically of a creator who intervenes in the universe. That last part of the sentence is important because it represents the dividing line between a Theist and a Deist. But like in the Atheism example, the active word is belief, not knowledge.
The word Gnostic comes from the Greek gnostikos and means to know, and likewise the connotation Agnostic means not to know. Therefore someone who considers themselves to be a Gnostic implies that they are absolutely certain about the subject at hand, while someone who uses the term Agnostic implies that they are not certain. This leads to the conclusion that no-one is just an Atheist or a Theist, and similarly that no-one is just an Agnostic or a Gnostic, at least in relation to this subject.
So, to sum up, one is either an Agnostic Atheist, a Gnostic Atheist, an Agnostic Theist or a Gnostic Theist. The first word implies the certainty with which you hold your position and the second implies the position itself. Its as simple as that. Still, this position might change depending on which god one is talking about. Unless one was to find that a person believes in all gods everywhere (there are thousands of religions, some with thousands of gods), that person is an Atheist with regards to some, usually most, gods.
Just sayin'...