What Is Atheism

@EvilFairy not to mistake with someone agnostic 😌

@EvilFairy If I were splitting hairs I would try to break down the definition of atheism; disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods into three words: belief, existence, God and gods.

1. Belief can mean trust i.e. "I believe in my son" or it can mean acceptance as true. Truth, ironically, can mean, a fact or [b]belief[/b] that is accepted as true. So, atheism, by dictionary definition which is only the current most common use of a word, implies a rejection of God and gods. The point being that belief itself isn't dependent upon existence. This interpretation, put simply, would mean atheists reject gods whether they exist or not. That seems less problematic and pragmatic than implying the belief is dependent upon establishing whether or not those gods exist. Kim Jong-Un is a god of North Korea. He exists. Argument over.

2. Existence is problematic when discussing gods because a god doesn't have to exist in a literal sense to exist as a god. Frodo Baggins is a fictional character. He doesn't exist. In the late 1960s he was called a god, therefore he exists as a god but doesn't exist in a literal sense. Again, Kim Jong-un is a literal person and god of N Korea. No doubt he exists. As mentioned earlier in this thread, God, as in Jehovah, can't be proven to exist or not exist. One can believe or not believe.

3. A god can be anything or anyone so atheism, by definition, would be nonsensical if stated as a disbelief or lack thereof.

The thing is, what is atheism? If it's the antithesis of theism; namely, belief in the existence of a god or gods, that is complicated. But if it is having no interest or having nothing to do with theism, that's simple. Virtually all of my family and friends with the exception of my mother are unbelievers who wouldn't like the social and political implications of atheism any more than the same of theism. They would be, in this latter interpretation, atheists. I enjoy debating atheists and have for over a quarter of a century. Most "atheists" you encounter online are what I call militant atheists. Outspoken and socio-politically frustrated with theocracy more than anything else.

@scooogy I've always wondered what agnosticism, in practice, really is. Is it a lazy sort of cowardice or is it painfully obvious as being that no one can know for certain whether God exists? Either way, it doesn't address the latter part of the definition of atheism. The question of the existence of gods.

@AkioTsukino As far as I know, agnostic people neither claim there'd be no God, nor would they believe in a certain one. There is at least one God, and you can't prove any of them not to exist.