Terminology

[Doc.]

I know there have been many topics about this, and I know you've discussed this several times but I still want to make it clear. I've searched dictionary and wikipedia, also google and now I am a bit confused. So long story short, once and for all, is THIS

how It works?

 

[MRaverz]

Theist - belief in a god
Atheist - without a belief in god

Gnostic - belief that existence of a god can be or isn't known
Agnostic - belief that the existence of a god cannot or isn't known

---

Gnostic Theist - "I KNOW God exists"
Agnostic Theist - "I THINK God exists, but cannot be sure"

Gnostic Atheist - "I KNOW God cannot exist"
Agnostic Atheist - "I DON'T THINK that God exists, but cannot be sure"

---

As for 'strong/weak', you can't be militant if you're not certain (or very close to certain) in what you believe in.

 

[borrofburi]

Language is used for communication; the word "atheist" is an excessively charged word that conjures up entirely different concepts in different people's minds, hence the word "atheist" fails to communicate, and thus I find it to be a "deprecated" term which I avoid. Rather than try to use it in a specific sense and try to clarify my meaning and risk alienating my audience irrecoverably, I prefer to come up with short little descriptions of what I think/believe like "I don't believe in a deity, pending good evidence". I find this helps to keep people from going "oh atheist, I've never met anyone who worships satan before", or "atheist... why do you hate god?" or "atheist... why do you like murdering children?" or "atheist... why do you have so much faith that god doesn't exist?"; I find this allows for a more reasonable discussion.

In short: I reject the word atheist as it tends to be a failed communication tool.

 

[Doc.]

Theist - belief in a god
Atheist - without a belief in god

Gnostic - belief that existence of a god can be or isn't known
Agnostic - belief that the existence of a god cannot or isn't known

---

Gnostic Theist - "I KNOW God exists"
Agnostic Theist - "I THINK God exists, but cannot be sure"

Gnostic Atheist - "I KNOW God cannot exist"
Agnostic Atheist - "I DON'T THINK that God exists, but cannot be sure"

---

As for 'strong/weak', you can't be militant if you're not certain (or very close to certain) in what you believe in.

okay that clears it up, thanks.

 

[Durakken]

Theist - belief in a god
Atheist - without a belief in god

Gnostic - belief that existence of a god can be or isn't known
Agnostic - belief that the existence of a god cannot or isn't known

---

Gnostic Theist - "I KNOW God exists"
Agnostic Theist - "I THINK God exists, but cannot be sure"

Gnostic Atheist - "I KNOW God cannot exist"
Agnostic Atheist - "I DON'T THINK that God exists, but cannot be sure"

---

As for 'strong/weak', you can't be militant if you're not certain (or very close to certain) in what you believe in.

No...

Gnosticism and Agnosticism does not directly correlate to anything about god. It is a stance on absolute knowledge of anything.
Atheism is a rejection of the stance that there is a god.
Theism is the stance that there is a god
Antitheism is the stance that there is no god

it is more or less like the the following

 

[Aught3]

It's pretty confusing and people will use the different terms to mean different things. Most sceptics/freethinkers/atheists will use the terms as defined in the OP and MRaverz post.

There is another way people come at these words shown here: http://scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts/Agnostic.gif

If I'm asked to define the words I would give an answer similar to MRaverz but in practice I usually just call myself an atheist because that usually fits no matter how the word is defined. Like Borr often says it's easier to give a short statement of your beliefs rather than to try and stick a label on it.

 

[MRaverz]

Gnosticism and Agnosticism does not directly correlate to anything about god. It is a stance on absolute knowledge of anything.
Atheism is a rejection of the stance that there is a god.
Theism is the stance that there is a god
Antitheism is the stance that there is no god

Yes and no, you're right about gnosticism relating to knowledge itself - it was easier to apply it directly in order to simplify my explanation.

As for anti-theism, that is a stance against theism - or sometimes a dislike of god.

 

[Squawk]

Heh, perfect demonstration of borro's point, but for gnosticsm.

I'm atheist, skeptic, whatever you want to call me. I'll stick with critical thinker, empiricist, rationalist etc. I'll go with atheist, hate the term agnostic.

I disagree on the definition of agnostic btw, primarily because if I tell the average person on the street that I am agnostic they will presume I refer to a deity. Language is defined by the people who use it, not the dictionary.