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Originally Posted by adysav
Atheism simply says there is no god or gods.
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Not necessarily. Atheism simply says 'I do not believe in gods'. It goes no farther than that. It certainly does not go so far as to say there are no gods, though some atheists (about half, according to a poll at
www.iidb.org) do say that there are no gods. Atheism is not the denial or rejection of gods. It is the inabiltiy to believe in gods.
the prefix 'a-' means 'without'
the word 'theism' means 'belief in god(s)'
Also, there seems to be the belief here that agnosticism is an 'in-between' position between theism and atheism. It's not. Agnosticism only refers to
knowledge: it makes no statement whatsoever about belief. Atheism only refers to
belief: it makes no statement whatsoever about knowledge.
Personally, I am an agnostic-atheist. In fact, I will go so far as to say that I am an atheist
because I am an agnostic. Because I do not know if there are such things as gods (agnosticism), I cannot possibly harbour a positive belief in gods (atheism).