What is a weak Atheist?

Question

Not trying to offend or anything like that I just heard it and decided to ask.

Answer 1

An agnostic.

Answer 2

Read the links to wikipedia, and read DuckPhup's excellent answer.

I just want to comment that weak atheism is not necessarily the same as agnosticism. Agnostic could mean "ignorant", but it could also mean "not knowable". So we could have weak and strong agnosticism. A weak agnostic is someone who simply thinks "I don't know if there is a god, and am not sure what might make me lean one way or another." A strong agnostic says "I don't know if there is a god, and furthermore, I think there is no way to know."

I am a strong atheist with respect to the God of the Hebrew Bible. I am firmly convinced the Hebrew Bible is myth, and the God described in it is fiction.

However, I am agnostic with respect to whether the universe was created by a supreme intelligence. I am nearly a strong agnostic. I think the evidence available to us may make it impossible to conduct an experiment that would answer the question of the existence of such a supreme intelligence.

Answer 3

Well, now you have me wondering, too.

I always thought atheists believed that life was simply a fluke of matter and energy, nothing before and nothing after.

Agnostics, I'd thought, simply believed that there was no possible answer to the origins of life or what comes after until we're dead. That there is something or nothing are both left open.

I also thought that both atheists and agnostics believed in evolution while disbelieving in a personified god, divine origin of religious texts, and the sanctified discrimination found in most religions.

My guess is the strong/weak labels were created by fundamentalists who believe that they can convert just about anybody. Heck, someone here said agnostics were just waiting for more proof - which is completely contrary to the belief that the answer is unknowable in life.

If you get more credible definitions, let me know.

Answer 4

Weak and strong atheism

Main articles: Weak atheism and Strong atheism

Strong or positive atheism is the belief that gods do not exist. It is a form of explicit atheism. A strong atheist consciously rejects theism and may even argue that certain deities logically cannot exist.

Weak or negative atheism is the absence both of the belief that gods exist and of the the belief that gods do not exist. In other words, anyone who is neither a theist nor a strong atheist is a weak atheist.

While the terms weak and strong are relatively recent, the concepts they represent have existed for some time. The terms negative atheism and positive atheism have been used in the philosophical literature and (in a slightly different sense) in Catholic apologetics.[11]

Answer 5

Consider the following sentence:

I do believe that god does exist.

That sentence can be negated in two ways:

1. I DO NOT believe that god does exist.

2. I believe that god DOES NOT exist.

The first sentence expresses the WEAK atheist position, also known as the agnostic-atheist position. The second sentence represents the STRONG atheist position.

The weak atheist position is characterized by an ABSENSE of belief, brought about by the lack of evidence that would be necessary sustain 'belief'. In this sense, the absence of belief in god is equivalent to an absence of belief in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Thor. The weak atheist (agnostic) position bears no burden of proof, since it is not asserting anything to be 'true'.

The STRONG atheist position is arrived at by a CERTAINTY that god DOES NOT exist, and implies that compelling evidence exists to support such a certainty. That being the case, it would seem that the strong atheist position DOES bear a burden of proof, since it is asserting that 'no god' is a 'true' proposition.

I am more of a 'snotty' atheist... but I think that has more to do with my utter contempt for people who create their world view from the myths, superstitions, fairy tales and fantastical delusions of an ignorant bunch of peripatetic Bronze Age goat herders, with no credible evidence, than it has to do with my lack of 'belief'.

"An agnostic is basically an atheist without any balls." ~ Stephen Colbert

Answer 6

An atheist unconvinced of the existence of any gods. In contrast, a strong atheist is one who believes there is evidence that gods don't exist. The weak atheist doesn't make any claims of gods existing. They just lack any such beliefs.

Personally, I'm both. For the gods that are well defined enough or have specific falsifiable claims about them, I'm a strong atheist. For the rest of the vaguely defined gods that people believe in, I'm a weak atheist.

Answer 7

Weak atheism (also called negative atheism) is the absence of belief in the existence of deities, without a belief in the non-existence of deities. Weak atheism contrasts with strong atheism, which is the belief that no deities exist, and theism, which asserts that there is at least one deity.

Weak agnosticism, or empirical agnosticism (also negative agnosticism), is the belief that the existence or nonexistence of deities is currently unknown, but is not necessarily unknowable, therefore one will withhold judgment until more evidence is available.

Answer 8

I personally haven't heard this used...and there are some good answers here. I suspect it's probably related to agnosticism. Perhaps the religious people have used this to relate to Atheists who aren't militaristic in their beliefs, but haven't quite decided that there MIGHT be a god out there but it can't be determined. But I don't know for sure myself.

Answer 9

A "weak" atheist doesn't believe in god.

A "strong" atheist thinks there is no god.

It's a simplistic explanation but it's the best one I've heard.

Answer 10

It probably came from a religious person stating atheists are weak because they can't except God. But, everyone can be weak. Atheists just don't need a god to feel they are not weak.

Answer 11

It is a meaningless term invented by someone who wanted to engage in a meaningless argument.

Atheism simply means "without a belief in a Supreme Being ("God")."

Nothing more nor less.

Most agnostics are atheists who refuse to admit what they really believe and claim "ignorance" since agnostic literally means "ignorant."


IF a "Supreme Being" made his (its?) existence known, atheists would no longer be atheists, weak, strong or in between.