Friday, November 2, 2007

Defining Atheism

I'd like to clear up my definitions of the various forms of atheism. These aren't definitive in the traditional sense, but they are the basic distinction, as I see it, between various forms of Atheism.

  • General Atheism: A non-theistic view of the world
  • Hard Atheism: The strong disbelief in God's existence in any way. Also: Scientific Atheism.
    • Militant Atheism: A form of Hard Atheism, this is the doctrine dictating active de-conversion of Theists to Atheism, but, unlike militant theists, militant atheism does not resort to any sort of actual martial force.
  • Soft Atheism: The non-belief in God as defined in popular religion
  • Mild Atheism: The default position of the Theist-Atheist debate, neither a negative or positive assertion. Also: Agnosticism, Skeptical Atheism
Addendum:
  • Terminal Atheism: The end-stage form of Atheism, for which there is no known cure. The belief that there is no evidence for God to had, anywhere, ever. An awful state to be in, but an unfortunate side affect of intelligence in the modern age. I'm afraid I'll die an atheist.

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