What is the difference between strong Atheism and weak Atheism?

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Atheism can never truly be described as strong or weak because the "a" prefix in word itself means to be "without" religion or belief. If a firm belief is not present, you are an atheist whether it is due to lack of knowledge, uncertainty, or anything else. There is really no room for vague areas.

Both moderate and strong atheists do not believe in God, but the latter are more inclined to debate the point more, and surprisingly tend to have more knowledge on the subject of religion.

Answer

Types of Weak Atheists Weak atheism is a very broad category. It includes, among others:

Those who have never been introduced to the concept of God (implicit atheists) Those who don't care enough about God to believe or disbelieve (apatheists) Those who consider the question of God to be meaningless (agnostics) Those who don't believe it is possible to be certain of the existence of God, and that therefore there is no justification in believing it (sceptics). Those who state that they personally have no knowledge of God (agnostics) Those who haven't made up their minds The only requirement is to be neither a theist (theists believe god exists) nor a strong atheist (strong atheists believe god does not exist).

Types of Strong Atheists The positions of strong atheists also vary, and can be a combination of the following:

Those who believe they know that God does not exist Those who believe that the concept of God is contradictory Those who do not claim any logical reason for their belief Those who don't believe it is possible to be certain of the existence of a God, but see justification in believing he does not exist based on current evidence (agnostic atheists) The only requirement is to accept the truth of the proposition "God doesn't exist".

Answer

The terms "strong" and "weak" atheism have misleading positive and negative connotations and are highly disputed among atheists. "Strong" atheism refers to positive atheism, the illogical assertion of knowledge that gods do not exist. You cannot know gods (or unicorns) do not exist factually, since it is logically impossible to prove a negative.

"weak" or agnostic atheism is the belief that gods do not exist without the claim of knowledge that they do not exist. Agnosticism being the position that it is not knowable whether they exist for the above reason.

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In some cases 'strong' atheists will take no argument, and maybe get angry with the religious people, and will go out of their way to change their fellows opinions, and get them to become atheists, just like the priests in olden times that came around preaching. Whilst 'weaker' Atheists merely believe their beliefs and just ignore those of other beliefs.

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Traditionally strong or active atheism refers to the rejection of the existence of god(s) whereas weak or passive atheism is simply holding no belief in god(s). As proving the existence or non-existence of god(s) is highly problematic, many strong atheists prefer to say that god's existence is highly improbable rather than impossible. It's probably even more effective for strong atheists to ask what the believer exactly means by 'god' before arguing its non-existence.

First answer by Blandina. Last edit by Myrab51. Contributor trust: 470 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 40 [recommend question]