I always considered atheist to mean "don't believe at all" ans agnostic as "willing to believe, but won't live any differently"
You are correct. Atheism is the belief (ironically) that there is no divinity.
I think what you describe (not really caring and leaning towards there not being divinity) would be called atheist-agnostic.
Someone who does think there is divinity but doesnt really care would be a deist-agnostic.
These are more complex concepts than I'm painting them to be, but if you Google them you can see if they fit the way you see yourself.
Atheism is the belief (ironically) that there is no divinity.
I don’t think that’s strictly true. The lack of belief in something isn’t a belief. By that logic, everyone would be a believer in the infinite things that don’t exist, which is silly.
Believing god is blue with 10 arms or an old white man, or a moon beam is a belief. Having no belief in any of those things isn’t an alternate belief system the same way an empty pie tin isn’t another form of pie.
Do some take the extra step and say something like “it’s impossible for there to be a god!”? Sure, but I think most atheists instead find 0 evidence of god, and therefore find it very unlikely.
An atheist who finds cero evidence, but does not believe (or assert) there is no divinity, is not an atheist, they are an agnostic-atheist.
I don't think it matters. But belief in there being no divinity, is by definition: a-theism (no-god)
Side note: Everyone is a believer in things that do not exist. Like perfect geometry, or the value of paper money.
Apatheism
An apatheist is someone who is not interested in accepting or rejecting any claims that gods do exist or do not exist. The existence of a god or gods is not rejected, but may be designated irrelevant.
You're an Agnostic.
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact.
Agnostic atheist. That's a pretty standard position for atheists. It means you don't believe in gods but you're not claiming that they don't exist. Proving that something doesn't exist is logically impossible so there's no point even bothering to try. So we're willing to believe in gods, if someone presents convincing evidence for their existence. Until then we don't.
Agnostic.
Gnostic / Agnostic is simply a claim about knowledge.
I'm agnostic as to whether my bread is stale. (I don't know if my bread is stale).
I'm gnostic about the planets shape (I know it's a dodecahedron).
Theist / Atheist is a claim about belief.
Every person fits into one of the following:
A Gnostic Theist claims to know God exists (therefore implicitly believing)
A Gnostic Atheist claims to know God doesn't exist.
An Agnostic Theist believes in God but doesn't have sufficient evidence to make definitive claims.
An Agnostic Atheist doesn't have sufficient evidence to make claims about God, and therefore doesn't believe.
In terms of rationale, both Gnostic groups make definitive claims without sufficient evidence and should not be trusted.
The Gnostic Theists believe in something without evidence, this is a fallacy, but it's something we all do every day. For example, I don't know if it will rain, but I believe it might, so I bring an umbrella.
An Agnostic Atheist is the most rational. If you don't have sufficient evidence to make a definitive claim, then why would you believe it?
What if I don't know what I believe? Am I an agnostic agnostic?
I think that makes you amnesic
That's fair 🤣
Apatheism: It's unimportant if god exist or not, you just don't care.
Practical Atheism: Just live your life not regarding any god.
The difference between those two is, a theist can be a practical atheist but not an apatheist.
To add to this, there's also Apathiest Agnosticist
Agnostic atheist.
but I always thought that was used to describe people who don’t think he exists.
Agnostic atheists and gnostic atheists are both atheists. The only people who say "atheists by definition claim there is no god" are theists, so that atheism seems unreasonable.
I'd call you an atheist, but specify "agnostic atheist" to anyone who doesn't understand the nuances of the terms.
OP is clearly God and just trolling us. Nice try God, we're on to you
Does God like enchiladas? ^Because that's what God's getting^
That is what I call Atheist. You don't care if one exists or not.
Atheist like us generally get thrown in with anti-theists (people who refuse an existence of gods) and are just as bad as a fundamentalist trying to prove they are right about a god existing or not.
Ignosticism or igtheism is the idea that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because the word "God" has no coherent and unambiguous definition.
Also see theological noncognitivism.
Say you have a jar full of jellybeans. We know that the number of whole jellybeans in the jar must be either even or odd.
If someone asks you if you believe the number of jellybeans in the jar is even, you can and should say "no" if you haven't counted them or otherwise gathered any evidence to support that conclusion. To believe something is to say you feel it is more likely true than false, and you can't say that about the given proposition.
Importantly, this does not mean you do believe the number of jellybeans is odd. The fact that one of those two things must be true does not mean you have to pick one to believe and one to disbelieve. It is perfectly rational to reserve belief either way until you have evidence one way or the other. You do not believe it's even, nor do you believe it's odd.
So, if we define "atheist" as "someone who does not believe in any gods", I think you meet the definition of atheist. Just like the person in the above example does not believe the jellybeans are even & also does not believe they are odd, you don't need to believe "there are no gods anywhere" to not believe "there is at least one god".
If you do not believe there is at least one god, don't you automatically believe there is at most zero gods? Isn't that how logic works? If you don't know you say you don't know, not you dont believe. When you say you do not believe you think have proof it isn't...
The purpose of my jellybean thought exercise was to show that "I don't know" and "I don't believe" are not mutually exclusive. Basically:
I do not believe [x] != I believe [not x]
I don't believe in String Theory. String Theory may be correct for all I know: I am not a physicist, and my understanding of String Theory is cursory at best.
Because I do not have enough evidence to warrant belief, I cannot say I believe in String Theory. But that same lack of understanding means I must also say I don't believe that String Theory is false.
TL;DR, it sounds like agnostic.
I've seen people differentiate between "agnostic atheist" and "gnostic atheist" but I am not sure if those are commonly used terms or just the result of a viral meme about it.
Negative atheism, also called weak atheism and soft atheism, is any type of atheism where a person does not believe in the existence of any deities but does not necessarily explicitly assert that there are none. Positive atheism, also called strong atheism and hard atheism, is the form of atheism that additionally asserts that no deities exist.
- Implicit "negative" / "weak" / "soft" atheists who lack a belief in God without explicitly denying the concept, includes very young children, those who are unacquainted with the concept or are truly undecided.
- Explicit "negative" / "weak" / "soft" atheists who do not believe that God exists necessarily.
- Explicit "positive" / "strong" / "hard" atheists who firmly believe that God doesn't exist.
When you say
The thing is, I just plain don’t care if God exists or not. They could, or they couldn’t, it really has no bearing on how I live my life. For that reason along I think I go in the atheist camp, but I always thought that was used to describe people who don’t think he exists.
To me that sounds like negative Atheism. You don't assert there is a divine being. Whether or not that is implicit or explicit is sort of hard to judge based on these statements.
For example, what you are saying is more about how you would react to a god, not necessarily how you'd believe in one. One might argue you're on the fence about Deism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism Because the type of god they believe in is one that is impersonal and does not intervene in their creation. In a sense that's not really contradictory with your statement.
All in all, asserting that the existence of a god would have no effect on how you live your life doesn't really have to do with your potential beliefs in god. For example, someone could believe in the Christian god exclusively but specifically not follow any doctrines they set forth. Perhaps as a means of rebellion or perhaps apathy.
Agnostic fits well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism You say God could exist or not. If you believe it's impossible to prove them that makes you an atheist.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/?ref=whcolony.com#DefiAgno
The terms “agnostic” and “agnosticism” were famously coined in the late nineteenth century by the English biologist, T.H. Huxley. He said that he originally
invented the word “Agnostic” to denote people who, like [himself], confess themselves to be hopelessly ignorant concerning a variety of matters [including of course the matter of God’s existence], about which metaphysicians and theologians, both orthodox and heterodox, dogmatise with the utmost confidence. (1884)
I'd say YoFrodo's answer of apatheism is possibly the closest you're going to get, but speaking in general terms of not believing or caring one way or the other, you'd be agnostic, not an atheist. Atheism is the belief that there are no gods and out right rejection in the belief of any gods. Those saying you're atheist don't know what one is.
Atheism is the belief that there are no gods and out right rejection in the belief of any gods.
No, not quite. Atheism is not believing in a god, it doesn't mean you claim there is not a god. A subtle difference, but it is the difference between not believing, and believing not. Also, agnosticism isn't a middle ground between theism and atheism, there is no middle ground, as it is dichotomous. Agnosticism speaks to knowledge, or what you claim to know. So, a person could be an agnostic atheist, or an agnostic theist.
A human
Not the answer to your question, but I find it important to point out, that atheist and non theist are not necessarily the same.
A non theist isn't necessarily a non believer who rejects all religion like the general understanding of an atheist.
The Dalai Lama for example calls himself an non theist and so do I as a Buddhist. Buddhism is a believe system, a religion, that does not believe that there is a god or gods. Some subdivisions of buddhism believe in divine beings you can turn to and pray to, but they all used to be ordinary humans, same as the Buddha, who obtained enlightenment and transcended into a higher form of being.
I call myself 'functionally atheist'. I'm philosophically agnostic in that I hold no strong opinion on the existence of a god/gods as that is fundamentally unknowable but for all practical purposes I act as though there is no god.
If you want to start on a philosophical question, try to define the word "exists". Write down a bunch of definitions, whichever are your favorite, and then see if the expression "God exists." has meaning.
Probably could be called agnostic or maybe deist. I'm not super familiar with either but that might be what you're looking for
Deist is IIRC some number of gods probably existed and set the world into motion but do not play a role in day to day life.
I must be like almost the opposite. I was obsessed with religion and philosophy although now im pretty athiest. So I kinda don't care but for me its more that I looked into more than enough and made up my mind.
Who cares? Why is everyone so concerned about labels? Just be your your own unique self and stop trying to fall into a category.
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