Strong atheism, sometimes called positive atheism, hard atheism or gnostic atheism, is the philosophical position that no deity exists. It is a form of explicit atheism, meaning that it consciously rejects theism. It is contrasted with weak atheism, which is the lack or absence of belief in deities, without the additional claim that deities do not exist. The strong atheist positively asserts, at the very least, that no deities exist, and may go further and claim that the existence of certain deities is logically impossible. Look up deity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Atheism, in its broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of gods. ... Atheism, in its broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of gods. ... Theism is the belief in one or more gods or goddesses. ... Weak atheism (also called negative atheism) is the lack of belief in the existence of deities, without a commitment to the necessary non-existence of deities. ...

While strong atheism does not necessarily preclude belief in supernatural entities or processes in general, strong atheists can have naturalistic tendencies and would likely also reject such beliefs. However, spiritual or supernatural beliefs would not preclude someone from being a strong atheist. The supernatural (Latin: super- exceeding + nature) refers to forces and phenomena which are beyond ordinary scientific understanding. ... Naturalism is any of several philosophical stances, typically those descended from materialism and pragmatism, that do not distinguish the supernatural from nature. ...

Some strong atheists qualify their position by stating what specific deities they think do not exist. They may believe that deities, such as the Abrahamic God, do not exist, based on the description of these deities provided by their followers. They may believe certain gods to be logically impossible based on these descriptions, or they may be swayed by one or many of the arguments against the existence of deities with certain characteristics (for example, that the problem of evil makes it impossible for a deity to be an omnipotent, completely benevolent/loving creator of everything). It is not unusual for a person to be a strong atheist with respect to particular deities and be a weak atheist with respect to other gods. Indeed, one may be (and in fact the overwhelming majority of theists are) a theist with respect to one or several deities and a strong or weak atheist with respect to all other deities. For example, Christians typically believe that the God of the Bible exists, but believe that Zeus, Thor, Krishna, and so forth, do not. A typical atheist joke is that there is only a small difference between a strong atheist and a Christian: they agree that most deities don't exist and disagree about only one of them. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Western religion. ... In the philosophy of religion and theology, the problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent god. ... The Bible (Hebrew: תנ״ך tanakh, Greek: η Βίβλος hē biblos) (sometimes The Holy Bible, The Book, Word of God, The Word Scripture, Scripture), from Greek (τα) βίβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, is the name used by Jews and Christians for their (differing but overlapping) canons of sacred texts. ... Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ... Thor carries his hammer and wears his belt of strength (MS SÁM 66, 18th century). ... Krishna (कृष्ण in Devanagari, IAST ) is according to common Hindu tradition the eighth avatar of Vishnu. ...

Usage

Although the concept of strong atheism has been in use for some time, originally under the name positive atheism , the strong name did not come into common usage until the early 1990s, its popularization assisted by its common usage in the alt.atheism Usenet group at the time. It is now the most commonly-used term for the concept in question, though by a relatively small margin—positive atheism and hard atheism are also common. The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive. ... alt. ... Usenet is a distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ...

Strong atheism is sometimes used as a synonym for explicit atheism, or vice-versa. However, the original meaning of the terms was quite distinct, with strong atheism relating to positivity of beliefs—whether atheism is a distinct claim in itself, or only the rejection of a claim—and explicit atheism referring to consciousness of beliefs—whether the lack of theism is due to conscious rejection of theism or just lack of theism. Using these definitions of the terms, strong atheism is always explicit, since it would be difficult to positively claim that no deities exist without having consciously rejected the claim that deities exist. However, explicit atheism is not necessarily always strong.

Justifications for strong atheism

Theism is impossible

Main article: Existence of God

Strong atheists who believe that the existence of a certain deity is impossible commonly claim that the combination of attributes which the Christian God is purported to have (for example, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, transcendence, omnibenevolence, etc.) is logically contradictory, and therefore, the existence of the Christian God is a priori impossible. Some, such as Richard Dawkins, contend that the notion of God as a creator is logically absurd, since it assumes what it seeks to explain (complexity). Many arguments about the Existence of God have been proposed by philosophers, theologians, and other thinkers. ... Omnipotence (literally, all power) is power with no limits or inexhaustible, in other words, unlimited power. ... Omniscience is the capacity to know everything, or at least everything that can be known about a character/s including thoughts, feelings, etc. ... Omnipresence is the ability to be present in every place at any, and/or every, time; unbounded or universal presence. ... In religion, transcendence is the concept that God can be either close to you or very separate from you, because he is perfect and beyond all things human: Jews see this as the idea that God is very great and omnipotent, like a Judge, father, warrior, or teacher. ... Omnibenevolence is the property of being perfectly good, attributed by some religions to God. ... A priori is a Latin phrase meaning from the former or less literally before experience. In much of the modern Western tradition, the term a priori is considered to mean propositional knowledge that can be had without, or prior to, experience. ... Richard Dawkins Clinton Richard Dawkins DSc, FRS, FRSL (known as Richard Dawkins; born March 26, 1941) is an eminent British ethologist, evolutionary theorist, and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ...

However, this argument is only a rebuttal of certain specific forms of theism, not of theism in general. As such, it may be possible to be a strong atheist concerning some types of theism (ones that are deemed "impossible" or "nonsensical"), and a weak atheist concerning other, less unlikely theistic beliefs.

Of course, even a theist will be a weak or strong atheist regarding some forms of theism—though some claim to believe in all forms of god at least theoretically, even if this is impossible in practice due to the many directly contradictory forms of theism. As such, the term strong atheism is usually reserved for those who have a positive belief in the nonexistence of all deities, not merely some.

Some people use a narrower definition of strong atheism which includes only this specific form of strong atheism: atheism that considers theism not just very unlikely, but actually impossible. By this definition, then, weak atheism is the belief that deities very likely, rather than definitely, don't exist. This alternate interpretation of strong and weak atheism may explain why some weak atheists consider strong atheism to be just as untenable as theism, but almost all self-professed strong atheists do not view theism in all its forms as impossible.

The alternate definition may partially result from the vagueness of words like "weak" and "strong", which mean entirely different things in different contexts. It may also result from the difficulty some have of distinguishing between the statements "I don't believe deities exist" and "I believe deities don't exist", as opposed to the relatively obvious difference between "I believe that deities definitely don't exist" and "I believe that deities probably don't exist". To avoid confusion, other names may be used for these definitions of strong and weak atheism, like definite atheism and probable atheism, just as positive atheism and negative atheism are still sometimes used to avoid confusion.

Theism is nonsensical

Main article: Ignosticism

The position that theism is inherently incomprehensible or meaningless, and thus logically invalid, is known as ignosticism. Some people who classify themselves as strong atheists base their views on this belief, which may in turn be based on a variety of things, such as the lack of a consistent, meaningful definition for what a "god" is or the unfalsifiability of many theistic beliefs. Ignosticism (often confused with apathetic agnosticism or apatheism) is the view that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because it has no verifiable (or testable) consequences and should therefore be ignored. ... Ignosticism (often confused with apathetic agnosticism or apatheism) is the view that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because it has no verifiable (or testable) consequences and should therefore be ignored. ... Falsifiability is an important concept in the philosophy of science that amounts to the principle that a proposition or theory cannot be considered scientific if it does not admit the possibility of being shown false. ...

Some contend that ignosticism is actually a form of explicit weak atheism, on the basis that simply deeming a certain belief nonsensical is not a claim on its own, merely the rejection of one, just as arguing that the statement "Platypus simmer choo-choo a pop" is nonsensical would not be a positive statement. As ever, this depends on the exact way different individuals interpret "positive" and "negative" statements, and there is no conclusive answer. Weak atheism (also called negative atheism) is the lack of belief in the existence of deities, without a commitment to the necessary non-existence of deities. ...

Theism is highly improbable

Some strong atheists may conclude, on the basis of lack of evidence or other rational grounds, that deities do not exist, but concede that it is theoretically possible, although extremely unlikely, that they could.

This position is close to many explicit weak atheist positions, in that many weak atheists strongly doubt the existence of gods and consider it improbable that they exist, but do not think that it is absolutely, definitely certain that no deities exist. The difference between such weak atheists and strong atheists may come down to an epistemological disagreement as to what constitutes sufficient grounds to justify an assertion of non-existence in the case of gods, rather than on any sort of disagreement regarding the likelihood of a deity's existence. Weak atheism (also called negative atheism) is the lack of belief in the existence of deities, without a commitment to the necessary non-existence of deities. ...

Statements of nonexistence merit positive claims

Some weak atheists and agnostics view strong atheism as just as untenable a position as theism. They may hold explicit doubts about the existence of particular deities in general, but be unwilling to rule out the possibility that certain deities exist. They may either feel that "you can't prove a negative" (which is not true as a general statement) and that belief in the nonexistence of something would never merit a positive statement, or that strong atheism might be a theoretically plausible stance in some circumstances, but that the nonexistence of gods is currently not yet certain enough at this point to merit positive claims.

As such, these nontheists they may hold that to positively assert the nonexistence of deities requires the same type of "faith" as theism itself. They may argue that in denying the existence of gods, one assumes a burden of proof similar to the one the theist assumes in asserting it, and that neither the strong atheist nor the theist has satisfied his burden of proof. If the nontheist is a strong agnostic, or explicit agnostic, he or she may argue that the existence or nonexistence of gods can never be known. The word faith has various uses; its central meaning is similar to belief, trust or confidence, but unlike these terms, faith tends to imply a transpersonal rather than interpersonal relationship – with God or a higher power. ... Strong agnosticism or positive agnosticism is the belief that it is impossible for humans to know whether or not any God or gods exist. ...

A common strong atheist response is that we live in a world where existence is determined rationally through science and observation, and that the default position of any statement of existence is falsehood, and thus that the burden of proof always lies with someone asserting the existence of an entity. This is accompanied by the view that things which cannot be observed and tested and proven to exist beyond reasonable doubt do not exist; "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". The idea that nonexistence is the default position on any claim is based on Occam's Razor. By this argument, absolute certainty about the nonexistence of the god or gods is not required to be justified in denying their existence. This sentiment was expressed by biologist Richard Dawkins, as follows: Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Science For the scientific journal named Science, see Science (journal). ... Observation is an activity of an intelligent living being, to sense and assimiliate the knowledge of a phenomenon in its framework of previous knowledge and ideas. ... Look up test in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In the common law, burden of proof is the obligation to prove allegations which are presented in a legal action. ... William of Ockham Occams Razor (also spelled Ockhams Razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. ... Richard Dawkins Clinton Richard Dawkins DSc, FRS, FRSL (known as Richard Dawkins; born March 26, 1941) is an eminent British ethologist, evolutionary theorist, and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ...

Agnostic conciliation, which is the decent liberal bending over backward to concede as much as possible to anybody who shouts loud enough, reaches ludicrous lengths in the following common piece of sloppy thinking. It goes roughly like this: You can't prove a negative (so far so good). Science has no way to disprove the existence of a supreme being (this is strictly true). Therefore, belief or disbelief in a supreme being is a matter of pure, individual inclination, and both are therefore equally deserving of respectful attention! When you say it like that, the fallacy is almost self-evident; we hardly need spell out the reductio ad absurdum. As my colleague, the physical chemist Peter Atkins, puts it, we must be equally agnostic about the theory that there is a teapot in orbit around the planet Pluto. We can't disprove it. But that doesn't mean the theory that there is a teapot is on level terms with the theory that there isn't. [1]

Another argument for strong atheism as opposed to weak atheism is that refusing to believe in the nonexistence of gods while believing in the nonexistence of ghosts, Santa Claus or the Invisible Pink Unicorn is inconsistent. Strong atheists maintain that the existence of gods is no more likely than the existence of these other characters, or any number of other random entities and objects with no evidence supporting their existence, and that it is no less justifiable to positively deny the existence of gods than it is to positively deny the existence of these other entities. They would contend that to be a weak atheist one must either refrain from positively asserting the nonexistence of ghosts, Santa Claus, and so forth, or explain what is special about deities that requires one to stop short of denying their existence. The strong atheist typically finds no difference between superstitions and deities, pointing to sociological explanations for the origins of theism. The term fallacy is used in two senses. ... Reductio ad absurdum (Latin for reduction to the absurd, traceable back to the Greek ἡ εις άτοπον απαγωγη, reduction to the impossible, often used by Aristotle) is a type of logical argument where we assume a claim for the sake of argument, arrive at an absurd result, and then conclude the original assumption must... Physical Chemistry is the combined science of physics, chemistry, thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics which functions to provide molecular-level interpretations of observed macroscopic phenomena. ... Peter William Atkins (born 1940) is a Fellow and professor of chemistry at Lincoln College in the University of Oxford. ... A Japanese teapot A teapot is a vessel in which to brew tea leaves with hot or boiling water, either inside a tea bag or loose, in which case a tea strainer will be needed to catch the leaves when the tea is poured. ... Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 0. ... A manufactured image of a ghostly woman ascending a staircase A ghost is an alleged non-corporeal manifestation of a dead person (or, rarely, an animal). ... A common portrayal of Santa Claus. ... A popular depiction of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, in the style of a heraldic animal rampant, though the nearest heraldic color to pink is purpure (purple). ... A common European superstition dictates that it is bad luck for a black cat to cross ones path. ...

However, it is perfectly possible for an explicit weak atheist to hold all of the above beliefs as well, and simply to hold the position that one need not make the positive claim of the nonexistence of deities for the same reason that it is unnecessary to positively claim the nonexistence of Santa Claus or Invisible Pink Unicorns; the default state is lack of theism until convincing evidence is supplied to the contrary, and as such only the rejection of theism, explicit weak atheism, is merited, not actual counterclaims, as strong atheism advocates. This largely semantic difference between the beliefs of some strong and weak atheists is one of the primary sources of confusion in the use of these terms, along with the fluidity of the word uses and the ambiguity of the definitions in some contexts. Weak atheism (also called negative atheism) is the lack of belief in the existence of deities, without a commitment to the necessary non-existence of deities. ... In the main, semantics (from the Greek and in greek letters σημαντικός or in latin letters semantikós, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ...

Theism is irredeemably harmful or flawed

Main article: Antitheism

Some strong atheists, sometimes called antitheists or militant atheists, oppose theism because of the harms of particular theistic beliefs and/or of supernatural beliefs in general. Some may be strong atheists because of their negative view on the effects of theism, while others may be the opposite—atheists who adopted antitheism because they had already rejected theism and were now focusing their philosophical attacks upon the belief system. Antitheism (sometimes anti-theism) is a direct opposition to theism. ...

Common motivations for antitheism include the view that theism has caused much harm, for example by causing wars and violent attacks; and the view that theism, by providing false explanations, obstructs a true and accurate understanding of the universe and its works. Opposition to a belief does not of course require action against believers because of their belief—this is the principle of tolerance. The cross of the war memorial and a menorah for Hanukkah coexist in Oxford. ...

External links

• Strong atheism
• Positive atheism