If you remain true to the Greek roots of the words, atheists lack a belief
in the existence of God, as agnostics lack knowledge of whether God exists:
"a-" = without, "theism" = belief in God (by later convention, a personal
God), "gnosis" = knowledge. It is not quite the same as saying that God
definitely does not exist, or that knowledge about the existence of God is
impossible, respectively, although a few atheists and rather more agnostics
would go on to make these stronger claims.
The fairest way to decide what a word applying to a group means is probably
to ask the members of that group. Most atheists would say that they are
reasonably sure that a personal God does not exist, just as they are
reasonable sure that Santa Claus dioes not exist and that the Sun will rise
tomorrow. They would not claim to be *absolutely* sure if they have even a
smattering of philosophical sophistication, since no empirical fact can be
absolutely certain (except perhaps the belief that I am having this thought
at this moment). An agnostic, on the other hand, can vary from someone who
has exactly the same view as that of the rational atheist just described, to
someone who tends to be a theist but rejects the requirement common in many
religions that he be absolutely certain even in the absence of any good
evidence. I expect that most professed agnostics would tend towards atheism
rather than theism, and could probably as easily describe themselves as
atheists without changing any of their beliefs.
Stathis Papaioannou
Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
George Levy writes:
One more point for Stathis: If atheism is not a religion, then zero is
not a number.
There is a clear difference between, on the one hand, believing x despite
the lack of any supporting evidence and, on the other hand, not believing
x because of the lack of any supporting evidence
As far as I know atheists believe in no god ( B~G or equivalently B( G=f
) ) and agnostics do not commit themselves to believing in god. (~BG) . In
that sense atheists are true believers. You are confusing the instance with
the class. The fact that zero represents a null value does not mean that
its status as a number is nil. The fact that atheists believe in zero god
does not mean they do not believe in anything.
George
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