What exactly is Atheism?

Agnostics don’t know what they believe in and so give consideration to different types of religions

Where do you people come up with these definitions?

Atheism is simply the lack of a belief in a god. The exact expression of that varies, but many of us say that we don’t think a god is any more plausible than any other possible-but-extremely-unlikely thing, like leprechauns, or orbiting teapots, and therefore doesn’t deserve serious consideration.

-Atheism is not having a relgion. It means you don’t believe in things that can not be proven.

There’s not much to explain, it’s just a person without relgion or faith in God’s in their lives.

Atheism is simply not believing in God…

1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God.
2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

Please note…the definition does not contain the word “truth”…

“Agnositics simply admit they don’t know…”

Phrannie, that is a little simplistic. According to your definition, we are all agnostic, because NO one actually KNOWS if god exists.

Here is the definition of Dictionary.com:

1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.

I always believed that atheism is easiest to understand by breaking the word down into its parts which literally mean a lack of theism (theism being a specific belief system). So, for lack of a better words, atheism is just a lack of belief in theology.

There is a distinct difference between agnosticism and atheism. Agnostics don’t know what they believe in and so give consideration to different types of religions. . .that’s just a clarification on arachnid’s def so people don’t believe the two are the same.

god is any more plausible than any other possible-but-extremely-unlikely thing, like leprechauns, or orbiting teapots, and therefore doesn’t deserve serious consideration.

The vast difference being…where the majority of the people in the world believe in God in one form or another…while only those under 10 years old (and a few folks under “supervision”) believe in the Santa, leprechauns, orbiting teapots…etc etc…

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truth…

Agnositics simply admit they don’t know…

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“The vast difference being…where the majority of the people in the world believe in God in one form or another…while only those under 10 years old (and a few folks under “supervision” believe in the Santa, leprechauns, orbiting teapots…etc etc…”

I am not sure how “vast” that difference is. Obviously those who believe think it is a big difference. Those who don’t, see no difference at all. Bottom line is that belief in god is not based on any evidence in the real world, just like santa & leprechauns are not. That similarity is what is important, not how many people believe the fantasy.

And just because a lot of people engage in a similar fantasy, does not suddenly make it true. People engage in all kinds of beliefs that to them are very real, but to others are simply untrue. How many parents think their kids are the most talented and smartest kids in the world, when in reality, they are average.

All christians used to believe in creationism. Now, due to scientific discovery, only the more ignorant religious types believe the story of genisis is true. Now if that story has been proven untrue, wouldn’t that make the rest of the story suspect?

Belief means nothing, evidence is all that matters.

…and here are some common TYPES of Agnosticism.

[Closed agnosticism] (a.k.a hard agnosticism, strong agnosticism, strict agnosticism, or absolute agnosticism) — The view that the question of the existence or nonexistence of God or gods and the nature of ultimate reality is unknowable by reason of our natural inability to verify any experience with anything but another subjective experience. A strong agnostic would say, “I don’t know whether God exists or not, and neither do you.”

[Open agnosticism] (a.k.a. soft agnosticism, weak agnosticism, empirical agnosticism, temporal agnosticism) — The view that the existence or nonexistence of any deity is currently unknown but is not necessarily unknowable, therefore one will withhold judgment until/if any evidence is available. A weak agnostic would say, “I don’t know whether any deity exists or not, but maybe one day when there is more evidence we can find something out.”

[Apathetic agnosticism] (also called Pragmatic agnosticism) — The view that there is no proof of either the existence or nonexistence of any deity, but since any deity that may exist appears unconcerned for the universe or the welfare of its inhabitants, the question is largely academic anyway.

[Agnostic theism] (also called religious agnosticism, spiritual agnosticism) — The view of those who do not claim to know existence of any deity, but still believe in such an existence.

[Agnostic atheism] The view of those who do not know of the existence or nonexistence of a deity, and do not believe in any.

[Ignosticism] The view that a coherent definition of God must be put forward before the question of the existence of God can be meaningfully discussed. If the chosen definition isn’t coherent, the ignostic holds the noncognitivist view that the existence of God is meaningless or empirically untestable. A.J. Ayer, Theodore Drange, and other philosophers see both atheism and agnosticism as incompatible with ignosticism on the grounds that atheism and agnosticism accept “God exists” as a meaningful proposition which can be argued for or against. An ignostic cannot even say whether he/she is a theist or a nontheist until a better definition of theism is put forth…

Not believing in God is what an antheist is, but I can tell all you people that you are the ones spoken of in the Bible, the false prophets, etc. Do any of you actually READ the Bible? Faith is believing without seeing, not having to have proof, that’s true faith. I don’t need to see God, but actually see his miracles every day, you just have to look to see them. I’d rather live my life believing in God and die and find out there isn’t one, than to live my life not believeing in God and die and find out there is. It’s too late then people, open your eyes. This world didn’t just come from a seed, or a star in the sky, one sperm can’t make a baby if it’s not from a divine creator. The sky, moon, stars, sun, trees, wildlife and all mankind didn’t just appear out of nowhere. I think atheists/agnostics, whatever, don’t want to believe in God, because they don’t want to bow down to a higher being, because they think they ARE the higher being. LOL Hey, but I will pray for your salvation anyway. God says we must love everyone;God loves the sinner, just not the sin and we are to do the same.

Atheism is the rejection of the existence of all the millions of false Gods and deities that were created by superstitious and ignorant human beings over the course of history.