I was reading.... this who else need to: Is “atheism” simply the “lack of belief” in the existence of God? Or is it something stronger than that? According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, atheism is defined as “the negation of theism, the denial of the existence of God.” This is the traditional, stronger definition of atheism but many “New Atheists” want to redefine the term to mean simply “the lack of belief” in God’s existence. In this sense, atheism turns into a kind of “non-theism.” Dr. William Lane Craig, a Christian philosopher, points out that if someone is a “non-theist” they could fall into, at least, one of three different categories: 1. Agnosticism: A lack of any certainty about God’s non-existence. 2. Verificationism: A view that says any talk about God is meaningless. 3. Atheism (traditional definition): The view that God does not exist. The problem with many New Atheists is that they use the term “atheism” to mean both “non-theism” and also atheism in its traditional sense (i.e. the denial of the existence of God). This switching back and forth between definitions leads to confusion and an obscuration concerning the burden of proof.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 18:57:44 +0000
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