What is the difference between strong Atheism and weak Atheism?

Answer 1

• "Strong Atheism" is a synonym for "positive atheism" or "hard atheism", which means "denial of the existence of deities". It is a subtype of "explicit atheism".
• "Weak atheism" is a synonym for "negative atheism" or "soft atheism", and means "lack of belief in the existence of deities".

The word "weak" is often seen with a negative connotation, so some atheists prefer the other synonyms like "negative" or "soft".

Richard Dawkins finds this categorization incomplete, and instead lists 7 different "milestones" along a spectrum from "strong theist" to "strong atheist". He refers to himself as a "de facto atheist", which is basically the same thing as "soft atheist" above: "I don't know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there."

Here are some opinions from our contributors:

OpinionIt's not really strong and weak it's more of gnostic athiest and agnostic atheist (both have their theist counter-parts) gnostic atheists are absolutely sure there is no god(s) and agnostic atheists believe there is no god(s) but maintain there is no proof for either side which is true. OpinionAtheism can never truly be described as strong or weak because the "a" prefix in word itself means to be "without" religion or belief. If a firm belief is not present, you are an atheist whether it is due to lack of knowledge, uncertainty, or anything else. There is really no room for vague areas.

Both moderate and strong atheists do not believe in God, but the latter are more inclined to debate the point more, and surprisingly tend to have more knowledge on the subject of religion.

OpinionTypes of Weak Atheists Weak atheism is a very broad category. It includes, among others:

Those who have never been introduced to the concept of God (implicit atheists) Those who don't care enough about God to believe or disbelieve (apatheists) Those who consider the question of God to be meaningless (agnostics) Those who don't believe it is possible to be certain of the existence of God, and that therefore there is no justification in believing it (sceptics). Those who state that they personally have no knowledge of God (agnostics) Those who haven't made up their minds The only requirement is to be neither a theist (theists believe god exists) nor a strong atheist (strong atheists believe god does not exist).

Types of Strong Atheists The positions of strong atheists also vary, and can be a combination of the following:

Those who believe they know that God does not exist Those who believe that the concept of God is contradictory Those who do not claim any logical reason for their belief Those who don't believe it is possible to be certain of the existence of a God, but see justification in believing he does not exist based on current evidence (agnostic atheists) The only requirement is to accept the truth of the proposition "God doesn't exist".

OpinionThe terms "strong" and "weak" atheism have misleading positive and negative connotations and are highly disputed among atheists. "Strong" atheism refers to positive atheism, the illogical assertion of knowledge that gods do not exist. You cannot know gods (or unicorns) do not exist factually, since it is logically impossible to prove a negative.

"weak" or agnostic atheism is the belief that gods do not exist without the claim of knowledge that they do not exist. Agnosticism being the position that it is not knowable whether they exist for the above reason.

OpinionIn some cases 'strong' atheists will take no argument, and maybe get angry with the religious people, and will go out of their way to change their fellows opinions, and get them to become atheists, just like the priests in olden times that came around preaching. Whilst 'weaker' Atheists merely believe their beliefs and just ignore those of other beliefs. OpinionTraditionally strong or active atheism refers to the rejection of the existence of god(s) whereas weak or passive atheism is simply holding no belief in god(s). As proving the existence or non-existence of god(s) is highly problematic, many strong atheists prefer to say that god's existence is highly improbable rather than impossible. It's probably even more effective for strong atheists to ask what the believer exactly means by 'god' before arguing its non-existence.

Strong: Believing truly that there is no god as a concept. Weak: believing there is no god but not having it as a concept

OpinionWell strong atheists are called 'Dogmatic' (the term can also be applied to God-believers) which means that they are 100% sure of their beliefs, which in this case is that there is no God, and can not in any way be convinced otherwise. I don't think there is such thing as a weak atheist, because I'm pretty sure that would be an agnostic person, if you are not sure if there is a God or not. If you are just talking about a regular atheist, they also do not believe in God whatsoever, but not so much that they could not be convinced otherwise if there was evident proof. OpinionThat difference is purely manufactured by people who are obsessed with religion and with atheism. Atheism is the absence of belief in gods. An atheist does not dwell on the existence or non-existence of gods. An atheist is comfortable with their choice. A person who wavers or believes there may be a god or labels herself at a certain degree of atheism is not an atheist. Religionists insist on classifying atheists as having different levels of non-belief. However, non-belief is simply non-belief. Either you believe or you do not. It's like pregnancy- there are no different degrees. Either you're pregnant or you are not.