Weak and strong atheism

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Strong atheism is a term generally used to describe atheists who accept as true the proposition, "god does not exist". Weak atheism refers to any type of non-theism which falls short of this standard. Because of flexibility in the term "god", it is understood that a person could be a strong atheist in terms of certain portrayals of god, while remaining a weak atheist in terms of others. The term "weak atheism" is sometimes used interchangably with "agnosticism."

Since many self-described agnostics specifically distinguish their stance from that of atheists, yet would also fit the general definition of "weak atheism," the validity of this categorisation is disputed[1]. Another problem is whether "strong" atheists must consider themselves able to prove authoritatively that a god does not exist, or rather, if they must only disbelieve in such a god in order to qualify. Prominent atheists such as Richard Dawkins avoid the strong/weak distinction. In The God Delusion Dawkins describes people for whom the probablity of the existence of God is between "very high" and "very low" as "agnostic" and reserves the term "strong atheist" for "I know there is no God". He categorises himself as a "de facto atheist" but not a "Strong Atheist" [2]

[edit] History

The strong and weak names did not come into common usage until the early 1990s, their popularization assisted by their common usage in the alt.atheism Usenet group at the time. While the terms themselves are relatively recent, the concepts they represent have been in use for some time. In earlier philosophical publications, the terms negative atheism and positive atheism were more common; these terms were used by Antony Flew in 1972, although Jacques Maritain used the phrases in a similar, but strictly Catholic apologist, context as early as 1949.[3]

Atheists and agnostics generally suggest that when proposing a theory - such as that a god exists - the burden of proof is on the proposer[4][5]. That is, someone who proposes a god has the burden to prove that there is one. It doesn't fall upon others to prove that there isn't one. Christian and other Theist philosophers generally suggest that the notion of proof implicit in this view is simplistic, and that most of the basic beliefs that people have about the world (such as the existence of other minds, or the existence of the past[6]) cannot be "proven" in the face of determined scepticism, but are nevertheless rational to hold.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Anthony Kenny What I Believe OUP 2006
  2. ^ The God Delusion pp50-51
  3. ^ Maritain, Jacques (July 1949). "On the Meaning of Contemporary Atheism". The Review of Politics 11 (3): 267-280. 
  4. ^ Richard Dawkins The God Delusion
  5. ^ Anthony Kenny in What I believe suggests that the "default" position is Agnosticism rather than Atheism or Theism
  6. ^ See eg Alvin Plantinga esp his God and other Minds
  7. ^ see eg Keith Ward's Is Religion Dangerous?


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