If Theism is the belief in a higher power, is God an Athiest?

Answer 1

The question assumes there is God.... however, if there is God as conceptualized by us, He is supposed to be omniscient which implies He does not have to believe anything. He has to be a non-believer, yet not an atheist because in His case, there is nothing unknown to believe in.

The problem for me is the imperfections and inconsistencies in our concept of an all powerful, all knowing and all present entity... any will or mercy or reward/punishment or love/compassion/benevolence etc. are incompatible with such an entity... such an entity would never have any reason to create or destroy.

Answer 2

As a number of people have already noted, the presupposition underlying this question is flawed. When one refers to a deity as "a higher power," one typically does not mean that *any* higher power will do. The Dean of my college has more power than I do, and is higher up the university hierarchy; I believe in her because I have physical proof of her existence (I've been to her office before, spoken with her, seen her, etc.). Do I believe in "a higher power"? Yes. Does that belief make me a theist? Not at all.

Moreover, some people use the term ("a higher power") to try to bridge differences between religions -- especially differences between Eastern and Western religions. Thus, we might hear someone say that, although a Buddhist does not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, she nevertheless believes in a higher power. Buddhists, however, are not typically considered theists, as there is no god in the Buddhist cosmology.

Theism, in the end, is probably best defined as something like "the belief in an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent creator deity, as typically found in the beliefs most commonly associated with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam." On this model, of course, there are many more "atheists" than there are non-religious people. Room is thus also left for agnostics who do not care to deny the possibility of some religious truth, but who cannot believe in the existence of the traditional God of theism (one such "a-theist" might be the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida).

Answer 3

I bet he is an atheist. According to the old testament god is a jealous control freak, an unforgiving homophobe and a genocidal racist bully. I bet quite arrogant as well, and probably think he's the big cheese of the universe. But I guess he is all knowing, he would know if there was a god above him. But then why should the christians worship that god if he was made by another god anyway! I dont think this can be answered, he knows everything, but we dont know what god knows...or even if he exists. He could believe in a god, he could not. Oh well, another way to illustrate the stupidity of believing in a god :)

Answer 4

Well, in order to make this question valid we would have to assume that God is a human being. It seems quite odd to consider animals Atheist because they don't believe in a higher power. I wonder why it seems natural to apply human characteristics to God. After all believing in a higher power is a characteristic of the human brain. This has always been my problem with theism. It seems that we cannot grasp the concept of a God without attributing Anthropomorphism like traits to such a being. Christians have the ultimate answer to the problem of conceptualizing a God like entity. They contend God is a human being they call him Jesus Christ? If there is a God he is not human, so I "Believe" your question is invalid.

Answer 5

Is it the belief in a higher power or the belief that god exists?

Answer 6

Yes, but that's not what theism is. God would know it existed if it did.

Answer 7

Chuckle, this is a no win question.... why do theists & atheists continue to irritate each other? Because I'm an atheist, I don't waste time debating an issue where the opposition has a fixed position regardless of the evidence.

Answer 8

everyone has their own idea of who "God" is. There are many different names for "God". But the fact is, there is only one God.

We just call Him something different according to what religion we are.

Examples:

Budda= God
The Messiah= God
God= God

:)

good question :)

Answer 9

Actually, according to the cogito (Renee Descartes "I think, therefore I am), only God could know that he himself exists. Talk about a paradox of self reference.

Answer 10

No. Because He IS the higher power.