I use a quote from Biomech to shed some light on the subject. I thought it helpful for clarification. (I used some of my own highlights in his text though, so to see the original go to his post please.)
...your conception of atheism is basically what theists say about us [atheists], not the actuality in most cases. But I need to clarify that a bit, because there is a subset of atheists who state it as a positive belief. Religious types have dubbed this "strong" atheism, vs what it seems most of us hold to, which they dub "weak" atheism.
In my arrogant opinion, "weak" atheism is by far the stronger position. Not because it's a positive belief, but because it is not. Our stance is not that we believe there is no god(s), but that we do not believe that there is based on the available evidence. "strong" atheism, to me, is just as much a religious stance as Christianity or Islam would be.
Weak atheism does not deny the possibility of deities, it just doesn't accept ordinary proofs for extraordinary claims.
That's all pretty general. Personally, I've no problem with the idea of a god or gods, but I see no convincing evidence. Religion, on the other hand, I take a strong and oppositional stand to. It makes broad, unprovable claims, and demands that those who adhere to it AND THOSE WHO DON'T accept it. Even, often especially, when those claims are contradicted by fact. And they're willing to kill over it.
I'll kill in defense of my person, my family, possibly even my nation were it actually invaded. I'll never even consider killing because a man believes something differently than I would. Depending on what that belief is, I might think him a fool. I might even say it, especially if he's not a fool generally. I'll talk about it, but I won't kill for it.
I can also state as fact that ALL current theistic religions are false. I base this on their own claims. Not all of them, some of their claims are either good morals or at least a bit of wisdom that is applicable regardless of derivation. But particularly, these two. That there is a god who wishes to be worshipped, and that he/she/it is the god of their religion.
Were these two things true, and based on their further claim that their sky daddy is all powerful, then there would be NO POSSIBILITY of plural, contradicting religions.
In my arrogant opinion, "weak" atheism is by far the stronger position. Not because it's a positive belief, but because it is not. Our stance is not that we believe there is no god(s), but that we do not believe that there is based on the available evidence. "strong" atheism, to me, is just as much a religious stance as Christianity or Islam would be.
Weak atheism does not deny the possibility of deities, it just doesn't accept ordinary proofs for extraordinary claims.
That's all pretty general. Personally, I've no problem with the idea of a god or gods, but I see no convincing evidence. Religion, on the other hand, I take a strong and oppositional stand to. It makes broad, unprovable claims, and demands that those who adhere to it AND THOSE WHO DON'T accept it. Even, often especially, when those claims are contradicted by fact. And they're willing to kill over it.
I'll kill in defense of my person, my family, possibly even my nation were it actually invaded. I'll never even consider killing because a man believes something differently than I would. Depending on what that belief is, I might think him a fool. I might even say it, especially if he's not a fool generally. I'll talk about it, but I won't kill for it.
I can also state as fact that ALL current theistic religions are false. I base this on their own claims. Not all of them, some of their claims are either good morals or at least a bit of wisdom that is applicable regardless of derivation. But particularly, these two. That there is a god who wishes to be worshipped, and that he/she/it is the god of their religion.
Were these two things true, and based on their further claim that their sky daddy is all powerful, then there would be NO POSSIBILITY of plural, contradicting religions.
This is silly. You can't breathe in a vacuum. When you say that you simply lack having belief at all, you are saying that you live in a vacuum.
If you lived out in the mountain woods, completely away from other people so that you never heard of God, you would still get the feeling of God from the things you saw in nature.
But you don't live this way. You live among other people, the majority of whom are theists to some extent at least. And the idea of God has been pushed into your head at least a little. You are forced to make a choice in faith by this. Either you believe God exists, or you believe He doesn't.
You might like the idea of living in a vacuum. You might wish that you could have lived your life in a vacuum. You might like the vacuum idea so much that you are trying with all your might to break free from the knowledge that you have so that you can live in the vacuum you wish for yourself. But you can't. It's too late. The knowledge of the idea of God is already in you, and outside of a complete lobotomy, you can't remove it.
You have only one of 2 choices in this area. Either you believe that God exists, or you believe that God doesn't exist. The idea of a third choice, to not even have enough knowledge so that you don't believe one way or the other, is not available to you. And the more you talk about it, the less you lose any vacuum that might be left, and the more you are set in your belief one way or the other.
