How can one be a 'strong' Atheist?

[Ratbag]

Hello,

I've been wondering for some time now how one can be an strong Atheist.
I know that there is no proof that there is a God, but is it also not impossible to disprove his existence?

I am an Agnostic Atheist. I personally don't believe that there is a God but neither do I claim that it is impossible that God does exist.

So my question to you strong Atheists out there. How can you claim to be certain that God does not exist, thus be a string Atheist?

EDIT: Off course I mean no disrespect to Atheists, so please don't go bashing me.

[Tankbuster]

I know that there is no proof that there is a God, but is it also not impossible to disprove his existence?

I am an Agnostic. I personally don't believe that there is a God but neither do I claim that it is impossible that God does exist.

Congratulations, you're an atheist.
Join the club!
Atheist T-shirts a $10.

Hey, I think there is a possibility that there is a God too, but I don't actually believe it. And neither do you, apparently.
Technically, the only question you have to ask yourself is "Do I believe in God?". If you answer yes, you're a deist or a theist. Anything else, including 'I don't know', you're an atheist.

(Concerning agnosticism:
Agnosticism only states what you know about the topic; the amount of certainty you have, if you will. It doesn't actually state what you believe.
Agnosticism is simply the position that you don't think you have enough information to make a decision (yet). But you're still going to live your life in the conviction that god either does or doesn't exist. You always make a decision one way or the other, so I'd say the term agnosticism is meaningless unless you say what your actual stance is: agnostic atheist or agnostic theist.

I happen to be an agnostic atheist, and if someone else reading this thread thinks "These atheists are simply too hard-core for me. I just believe that there is a possibility that a god exists." Well, congratulations, you're an atheist. Because you don't actually believe it.
I believe that there is some possibility that there is a god (albeit a slim possibility), but the easiest way to state agnostic atheism is simply: I don't believe that any of the advanced hypotheses for the existence of a god, have met their sufficient burden of proof.)

[Phier]

Congratulations, you're an atheist.
Join the club!
Atheist T-shirts a $10.

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[Oberbefehlshaber]

Hello,

I've been wondering for some time now how one can be an Atheist.
I know that there is no proof that there is a God, but is it also not impossible to disprove his existence?

I am an Agnostic. I personally don't believe that there is a God but neither do I claim that it is impossible that God does exist.

So my question to you Atheists out there. How can you claim to be certain that God does not exist, thus be an Atheist?

EDIT: Off course I mean no disrespect to Atheist, so please don't go bashing me.

I am an Atheist because I beleive that every religion that I know of (on Earth) is made up, not saying that I know the secrets of the universe, just the religions.

[Helm]

The atheist test.

Question: Do you believe in and/or worship a God or gods?

If the answer is anything other than "yes I do" then you're an atheist. You have weak/strong atheism and all that, and also spirtual atheism such as Buddhism.

[Ratbag]

@TankBuster: Oke, that would mean I'm an Agnostic Atheist. Thanks for clearing that up. (I'm quite a dud in this area.)

Let me rephrase my question. To the 'Hardcore Atheists' How can you claim to be certain that God does not exist, thus be an 'Hardcore Atheist'?

[Eers]

I have a friend, who's a ''hardcore'' atheist.
To him, the idea of a god is just so stupid and ridiculous that he finds it quite impossible to believe that there is an omnipotent being.

That is a ''hardcore'' atheist as I know.

[DekuTrash]

I have a friend, who's a ''hardcore'' atheist.
To him, the idea of a god is just so stupid and ridiculous that he finds it quite impossible to believe that there is an omnipotent being.

That is a ''hardcore'' atheist as I know.

Sounds like someone I know!

Only he believes the followers of any faith to be inferior human beings.

[Claudius Gothicus]

To be a strong atheist you have to be 100 percent sure that there's no such a thing as a superior entity creator of the universe.

[Tankbuster]

No problem. The confusion with all the terminology is that there are different sets of definitions running around.
According to an another set of definition, we would be 'weak atheists' (as in: we don't go as far as to deny, whereas 'strong atheists do'). I tend to reject all these because they clutter up the issue. The simplest thing is to say: "I don't believe that any description of God that has been proposed, has met their sufficient burden of proof for me to believe in them"
But for the general purpose, I think the simple 'atheist' describes what I think quite well.

As for strong atheists... there really aren't that many of them around...

[Visna]

Let me rephrase my question. To the 'Hardcore Atheists' How can you claim to be certain that God does not exist, thus be an 'Hardcore Atheist'?

The same way people can declare with absolute certainty that God does exist, I suppose.

[Copperknickers II]

Hello,

I've been wondering for some time now how one can be an Atheist.
I know that there is no proof that there is a God, but is it also not impossible to disprove his existence?

I am an Agnostic. I personally don't believe that there is a God but neither do I claim that it is impossible that God does exist.

So my question to you Atheists out there. How can you claim to be certain that God does not exist, thus be an Atheist?

EDIT: Off course I mean no disrespect to Atheist, so please don't go bashing me.

I can claim that he does not exist because i have no reason to believe he does exist. God is a hypothesis. Until we have proof, He does not scientifically exist, therefore i choose to believe that He does not.

[Copperknickers II]

That is even worse than religion. Catholicism has killed noone, neither has Islam, Judaism, or any religion. People kill people, not religions, and a murderer is a murderer no matter what faith he is, and should have no respect afforded them. They do not respect life, therefore we should not respect their lives.

Ignorance is not inferiority. That implies that there are those who are not ignorant.

[MaximiIian]

To the 'Hardcore Atheists' How can you claim to be certain that God does not exist, thus be an 'Hardcore Atheist'?

Same way theists such as myself have a degree of confidence that deity exists: belief and inner conviction.

and also spiritual atheism such as Buddhism.

Nitpick: Buddhism isn't inherently atheist or theist. It literally takes no stance. In practice, most Buddhists are actually theists or animists. Siddhartha Gautama himself was a Hindu. The largest Buddhist-heavy countries (China, Japan, and Mongolia) also largely maintain their traditional folk religions alongside Buddhism.

That is even worse than religion. Catholicism has killed no-one...People kill people, not religions...

This, basically. Most religious violence has really been for personal gain, and was not a part of the religion itself. Most of the time, the Popes spent a lot of effort trying to get people to not commit religious violence. The majority of religious-motivated violence was committed not by the Church, but by kings and dukes. The Spanish Inquisition, for example, was entirely run by the royal government. The much-mentioned "witch trials" were an Early Modern phenomenon, not really supported by the Church, and generally done by local clergy bowing to populist hysteria. The Crusades were, as said, a mixed bag mostly undertaken by disenfranchised princes seeking glory and land to own.

In any case, this is not the Middle Ages anymore. The Catholic Church is probably one of the largest and most expansive charity organisations in the world. It's unfair to judge the current incarnation of the RCC based on actions far, far in the past.

[DekuTrash]

It's unfair to judge the current incarnation of the RCC based on actions far, far in the past.

Ah but it still happens.....

[MaximiIian]

Ah but it still happens.....

What, them getting maligned unfairly? Or are you trying to imply that the RCC still goes around whacking people that disagree with them?

[DekuTrash]

What, them getting maligned unfairly?

From my experiences, this.

[Elrond]

I think the idea that everyone who isnt a theist or deist must be an atheist is totally wrong. I have friends who are agnostics and atheists - they are not the same thing. I have a friend who was enquiring about my beliefs and said something along the lines of 'I think there might be a God but I am not really sure about it' - he then followed it by stating the obvious - that he was agnostic. Theres no way he could be described as an atheist as he thinks theres a reasonable chance that God exists but he cant be described as a theist or deist because he thinks there might not be a God.

[Tankbuster]

This, basically. Most religious violence has really been for personal gain, and was not a part of the religion itself. Most of the time, the Popes spent a lot of effort trying to get people to not commit religious violence. The majority of religious-motivated violence was committed not by the Church, but by kings and dukes. The Spanish Inquisition, for example, was entirely run by the royal government. The much-mentioned "witch trials" were an Early Modern phenomenon, not really supported by the Church, and generally done by local clergy bowing to populist hysteria. The Crusades were, as said, a mixed bag mostly undertaken by disenfranchised princes seeking glory and land to own.

In any case, this is not the Middle Ages anymore. The Catholic Church is probably one of the largest and most expansive charity organisations in the world. It's unfair to judge the current incarnation of the RCC based on actions far, far in the past.

Well no, this is a step too far. It's true that bad people will do bad things, whether they're religious or not. But religion also has the quite extraordinary ability to get good people to do bad things.
A cliché, but quite true.

[Watchman]

Believing you know the Ultimate Truth about the world - and hence by no particularly demanding leap of faith Can Do No Wrong - is notoriously wont to make perfectly normal people do some quite ugly things in general. The particular brand of Truth is pretty irrelevant, really.