Reply #18: Not really [View All]

[Az]

Look at the word. If the word theism means a belief in god or gods and the prefix 'a' means without, then it becomes clear that an atheist is simply someone without a belief in god or gods.

The matter may be confused by the fact that some of the more vocal atheists tend to be assertive about their beliefs. Furthermore just as some theists do not fully understand the nature of their beliefs the atheists too may be a bit muddled (no muddle that was not a ref to you :) ) about what it is they believe. A lot of emotions can get tied up in this question. Therefor they may compensate by over reaching their position. Insisting they know there is no god.

There are two different thoughts going on here. There is the question of if an individual believes in god or gods. This is addressed by the words atheism/theism. Then there is the question of what they know about the universe. This concept is addressed by the terms agnosticism/gnosticism. We are more familiar with the term agnostic than gnostic. This is because more people are ready to grasp the term agnostic for the simple fact that it is very difficult to be gnostic.

The thing is you can be an agnostic and believe in god. You can be an agnostic and not believe in god. Thust telling us you are an agnostic does not tell us whether you believe or not. It doesn't even tell us what you do or do not believe. It only tells us that you are aware that you do not know in a absolute sense whether what you believe is true or not.