Dante9 said:
I bet you have heard this before, but atheism is not a belief system, but rather the lack of one. It does not take any effort or practise to not believe in something. It just does not exist, in our eyes. Simple as that. Is not believing in unicorns a belief system, for example? Of course not. Many religious people seemingly cannot fathom not having a belief of some form, so in their mind, they have a need to twist even unbelief into a belief. It's weird. Sorry, didn't mean to crash this place but as an atheist I just felt i needed to address this. |
I have heard it many times. Each time I think it is wrong.
The question we should ask ourselves is what is 'belief'? Here is a common definition from a dictionary.
conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence
So, right off the bat, a belief is a STATEMENT OF TRUTH. When you believe in something, you think of it as true. When one says I am an atheist, they are stating there is NO GOD. That is not 'lack' of belief. That is a statement. A fact you are saying out loud. I can have a 'lack of belief' in unicorns, but I still don't believe they are real. It is MY BELIEF that unicorns are not real. That is a statement of what I believe is fact. Replace that with god, and there you go! You made the same type of statement.
If you want to take a true neutral position, like a scientist would do. You would state that there is no evidence for God's existence or nonexistence. That is called agnosticism.
In short, atheism is not the DEFAULT position. You are stating in the ground that there is NO GOD. The DEFAULT position is agnosticism. Therefore, if someone tells me, I don't know if there is or is not a god.
I consider that a lack of belief in ANYTHING. Not just gods, but how the world works. Whether you believe in god or not, it fundamentally changes the way you think of the world.
For example. Where do morals come from? If you believe in god, you would say. 'God.'
If you are an atheist, you say 'Morality is a social construct, and can change depending on what society deems acceptable at the time.'
An agnostic is someone who says, 'I don't know where morality comes from. Because I lack belief that they have a source.'
TLDR:
Agnosticism is the true 'lack of belief' that atheists claim they have. By claiming yourself as an atheist, you are stating there are NO gods. None. Just like how atheists like to claim there is 'no' evidence of god. I like to turn it around and say, 'You have no evidence that there is not one.' Either way, you are taking a stance. Which one do you believe in? Guess what? You took a stance.
If you wish to read more. I highly recommend this webpage.
Anyway, let us not derail the thread. This can be done elsewhere at another time.
Last edited by killeryoshis - on 19 November 2025
