Atheism

Different types of Atheists:

Anthony Flew distinguished between strong and weak atheism:

Positive atheism - where someone has the firm opinion that there is no God and thinks that theists are wrong

Negative atheism - where someone has no belief in God but they could be indifferent to religion. They don’t personally believe in God but don’t think others are wrong.

Anthony Flew, negative atheism and the ‘burden of proof’

Presumption of atheism - this is the neutral position. It’s not a position that we have to argue for.

Burden of proof is on the theist - they’re the one making a positive claim.

‘New atheism’ - also called ‘militant atheism’ or ‘anti-theism’

Sees religious belief as a threat to the human race.

Agnosticism:

Not knowing whether there is a God or not

Term first used by Thomas Huxley and he meant to refer to people who have considered the issue of God’s existence and have concluded that the question is unanswerable or unknowable.

“An agnostic thinks it impossible…

Different ypes of Agnosticism:

‘strong agnosticism’ - No one can know, its impossible for anyone to know if God exists

‘weak agnosticism’ - The person hasn’t personally seen sufficient evidence for God’s existence