Strong atheism
Encyclopedia
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
that maintains that "There is no god
Deity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
" is a true statement. Negative atheism refers to any other type of non-theism
Nontheism
Nontheism is a term that covers a range of both religious and nonreligious attitudes characterized by the absence of — or the rejection of — theism or any belief in a personal god or gods...
, wherein a person does not believe in the existence of any deity, but does not explicitly claim that the statement "There is at least one god" is false.
Strong atheism and hard atheism are alternates for the term positive atheism, whereas weak atheism and soft atheism are alternates for negative atheism.
The terms negative atheism and positive atheism were used by Antony Flew
Antony Flew
Antony Garrard Newton Flew was a British philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, he was notable for his works on the philosophy of religion....
in 1976,
and are the more common usage in scholarly writing, appearing again in Michael Martin's writings in 1990.
Usage of the strong/weak terminology grew in the mid-1990s on the Internet, particularly due to the newsgroup alt.atheism
Alt.atheism
alt.atheism is a Usenet newsgroup within the alt.*hierarchy that discusses atheism. A survey of usenet groups in 1994–1995 found that, among 70 groups discussing "consciousness, spirituality, and religion ", it was the group with the highest traffic volume...
.
Jacques Maritain
Jacques Maritain
Jacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive St. Thomas Aquinas for modern times and is a prominent drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
used the negative/positive phrases as early as 1949, but with a different meaning and in the context of a strictly Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
apologist.
Because of flexibility in the term "god", it is possible that a person could be a positive/strong atheist in terms of certain conceptions of God
Conceptions of God
The God of monotheism, pantheism or panentheism, or the supreme deity of henotheistic religions, may be conceived of in various degrees of abstraction:...
, while remaining a negative/weak atheist in terms of others. For example, the God of classical theism
Classical theism
Classical theism refers to the a form of Theism in distinction to modern ideas about God such as Theistic Personalism, Open Theism and Process Theism. Classical Theism began with the works of the Greek philosophers, especially Platonists and Neoplatonists and was developed into Christian Theology...
is often considered to be a personal supreme being who is omnipotent, omniscient, all-good, and cares about humans and human affairs. One might be a positive atheist for such a deity (see problem of evil
Problem of evil
In the philosophy of religion, the problem of evil is the question of how to explain evil if there exists a deity that is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient . Some philosophers have claimed that the existences of such a god and of evil are logically incompatible or unlikely...
), while being a negative atheist with respect to a Deistic
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
conception of God by rejecting belief in such a deity but not explicitly asserting it to be false.
Under this positive/negative classification, some agnostics would qualify as negative atheists.
The validity of this categorisation is disputed, however, and a few prominent atheists such as Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
avoid it. In The God Delusion
The God Delusion
The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book by British biologist Richard Dawkins, professorial fellow of New College, Oxford, and inaugural holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that...
, Dawkins describes people for whom the probability of the existence of God
Spectrum of theistic probability
Popularized by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, the spectrum of theistic probability is a way of categorizing one's belief regarding the probability of the existence of a deity.- Atheism, theism, and agnosticism :...
is between "very high" and "very low" as "agnostic" and reserves the term "strong atheist" for those who claim to know there is no God. He categorizes himself as a "de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
atheist" but not a "strong atheist" on this scale.
Within negative atheism, philosopher Anthony Kenny
Anthony Kenny
Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny FBA is an English philosopher whose interests lie in the philosophy of mind, ancient and scholastic philosophy, the philosophy of Wittgenstein and the philosophy of religion...
further distinguishes between agnostics
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
, who find the claim "God exists" uncertain, and theological noncognitivists
Theological noncognitivism
Theological noncognitivism is the argument that religious language, and specifically words like "god", are not cognitively meaningful. It is sometimes considered to be synonymous with Ignosticism.-Overview:...
, who consider all talk of gods to be meaningless.
Positive and negative atheism are compared as well to the philosopher George H. Smith
George H. Smith
George Hamilton Smith is an American author, editor, educator and speaker.-Biography:Smith grew up mostly in Tucson, Arizona, and attended the University of Arizona for several years before leaving without a degree; he relocated to Los Angeles during 1971. With the help of libertarian editor Roy A...
's less-well-known categories of implicit and explicit atheism
Implicit and explicit atheism
Implicit atheism and explicit atheism are subcategories of atheism coined by George H. Smith . Implicit atheism is defined by Smith as "the absence of theistic belief without a conscious rejection of it"...
, also relating to whether an individual holds a specific view that gods do not exist. However, the original and technical meanings of implicit and explicit atheism are distinct from negative and positive atheism.
"Positive explicit" atheists assert that it is false that any deities exist. "Negative explicit" atheists assert they do not believe any deities exist, but do not assert it is true that no deity exists. Those who do not believe any deities exist, but do not assert such non-belief, are included among implicit atheists. Among "implicit" atheists are thus sometimes included the following: children and adults who have never heard of deities; people who have heard of deities but have never given the idea any considerable thought; and those agnostics who suspend belief about deities, but do not reject such belief.
All implicit atheists are included in the negative/weak categorization.
The Atheist Community of Austin (ACA) uses the term positive atheism in a different sense. The ACA refers to positive atheism in the sense of putting a positive face to atheism and dispelling the false and negative image of atheism portrayed by religious people, especially in places of worship.