• PM_ME_FEET_PICS@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Atheism are people who are activly against religion. Nothing are Irreligious people I assume. No Response are those who’s religious identity are unknown. Could be any of the others or none of them.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Generally: atheists are those that say there are no gods and no goddesses. Agnostics tend to be more on the fence about it, making no claim either way.

      But, as a rule, neither requires that someone is “against religion”.

      • Psionicsickness@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        Gnosticism and theism are two different concepts and it infuriates me that every semi educated loser conflates them.

        • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Just so you’re aware, agnosticism and gnosticism are not the same. Wouldn’t go calling anyone semi-educated and then use the wrong term, if I were you.

          • Psionicsickness@reddthat.com
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            1 year ago

            Agnosticism is the opposite of gnosticism. It’s “not knowing” vs “knowing”. Theism and atheism is “belief” or “not believing”. Take me for instance, I’m an Agnostic Thiest. I believe there is a God, but I don’t claim to know.

      • banneryear1868@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        In the late 00s there was a New Atheism movement which was more than just not being religious, sometimes called “capital-A atheism.” People conflate that with normal atheism sometimes. That movement split in the 2010s as culture war became more of a thing.

      • PilferJynx@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’ve always thought that atheists are actively non theistic. Nothing would suggest there is no opinion formed to any conclusion.

        • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I think you thought wrong lol. As an atheist I can assure you I don’t give a shit what anyone else believes haha

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Am atheist. Am not actively against religion. If it makes your life better and is also benefiting others (or at least its not a negative), have at it. I do not give a shit.

      • phx@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, I don’t find any religion I’ve ever run across appealing, but I have no beef with those who do good under the umbrella of their religion and don’t try to beat on others with it.

    • bigschnitz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Atheist is literally “not theist” which would include nothing, none, agnostic (the belief that it’s impossible to determine the existence or absence of, in this context, God). It could even be argued that people who believe in God but do not participate in theistic practices (eg lapsed Catholics) are atheists. It does not require or even imply some position against religion.

      • Jackeoh@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        This isn’t accurate though. In the most semantic, etymological sense perhaps. But atheism is widely understood to be the disbelief in deities. Agnosticism and atheism are very different. One is a position of belief (I cannot prove god doesn’t exist, but I don’t believe it to be so) and one is a position of ignorance (I cannot prove god does exist or doesn’t exist). Words, meanings and definitions are defined by who is interpreting them. This therefore means that the definition is whatever the majority believes it to be. You may as well be looking at a field of flowers and describing them as gay. It may have been the appropriate term once, but it is not now. And we live now. The etymology of the term is not the same as the meaning of the term. Sitting there and prescribing that your interpretation of the term is the correct interpretation reminds me a lot of the tale of King cnut.

        • possibly a cat@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Positive/strong atheism is the subvariant of atheism that actively asserts there is no deity. Many atheists are negative atheists and are better defined by their lack of focus on religion - whether for, against, or otherwise - in their daily lives.

          In my experience negative atheism is popular where the culture is not predominantly religious, whereas positive atheism is more common in fundamentally religious societies (although it is not necessarily publicly expressed) where secular thought is in the minority.

            • bigschnitz@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              You can be atheist agnostic - you don’t actively participate in religion or worship but believe it is fundamentally unknowable if there is or is not a god, you can also be theistic agnostic (though this is rare in the modern lexicon) which would be where you do participate in religion (or religious practices) but still believe it to be unanswerable. To be gnostic is to believe it is knowable (and perhaps that one does know), it too can be either theist or atheist in nature.