I’m curious if there’s a name to the belief I have. I wouldn’t exactly call it atheist, though i generally lean that way, but I wouldn’t call it non-theist. The thing is, I just plain don’t care if God exists or not. They could, or they couldn’t, it really has no bearing on how I live my life. For that reason along I think I go in the atheist camp, but I always thought that was used to describe people who don’t think he exists.
Apatheism
An apatheist is someone who is not interested in accepting or rejecting any claims that gods do exist or do not exist. The existence of a god or gods is not rejected, but may be designated irrelevant.
Agnostic atheist. That’s a pretty standard position for atheists. It means you don’t believe in gods but you’re not claiming that they don’t exist. Proving that something doesn’t exist is logically impossible so there’s no point even bothering to try. So we’re willing to believe in gods, if someone presents convincing evidence for their existence. Until then we don’t.
Apatheism: (apathy+theism) It’s unimportant if god exist or not, you just don’t care.
Practical Atheism: Just live your life not regarding any god.
The difference between those two is, a theist can be a practical atheist but not an apatheist.
To add to this, there’s also Apathiest Agnosticist
Ignosticism or igtheism is the idea that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because the word “God” has no coherent and unambiguous definition.
Also see theological noncognitivism.
but I always thought that was used to describe people who don’t think he exists.
Agnostic atheists and gnostic atheists are both atheists. The only people who say “atheists by definition claim there is no god” are theists, so that atheism seems unreasonable.
I’d call you an atheist, but specify “agnostic atheist” to anyone who doesn’t understand the nuances of the terms.
That is what I call Atheist. You don’t care if one exists or not.
Atheist like us generally get thrown in with anti-theists (people who refuse an existence of gods) and are just as bad as a fundamentalist trying to prove they are right about a god existing or not.what I call Atheist. You don’t care if one exists or not.
The classical Atheist cares. He finds it important that God does not exist.
This here is an Agnostic.
Nope, he finds it important no one uses what to him is a fictional character to push laws and regulations. You would also care if people prohibited you from doing something you like to do or think is important because Superman said it was wrong.
That’s a big difference, in general atheist don’t care about God(s), they care about people trying to use God(s) to push an agenda, but the people who’re trying to use God(s) to push that agenda rarely see the difference.
I have met some, but never this special type of Atheist. Better do not think that they are all like you ;-)
Do you find it important that Spider-Man does not exist? Do you think anyone in their right mind would find it important? No, but the moment someone starts to force you to do or not do stuff because Spider-Man thinks it’s bad it becomes important to make it clear that Spider-Man is not real.
The VAST majority of atheist are indifferent towards religion, unless that religion is trying to control them somehow. This is why you don’t see atheist complaining about Buddhism in western countries, if a religion is not trying to force itself into an atheist life he cares as much as you do about all of the thousands of other religions you’re an atheist towards. If you feel atheist are trying to impose their non-believe on you, it’s because you’re trying to impose your belief on them and they’re calling you on your bullshit.
Also, btw, I never claimed I was an atheist, so I see no reason for you to think that atheist should believe the same thing I do.
You’re thinking of anti-theist.
Antitheism, also spelled anti-theism, is the philosophical position that theism should be opposed.
Atheists can merely not care if there was a god because they don’t see any proof of it.
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities.
Atheism can also be more anti than that, but isn’t necessarily always that way
The classical Atheist cares. He finds it important that God does not exist.
I see you fall into my second line of lumping Atheists with anti-theists.
Agnostic is you believe there is something equating to a god but don’t believe in God
You’re capitalising God to mean some abraamic god or just whichever currently proposed god?
Say you have a jar full of jellybeans. We know that the number of whole jellybeans in the jar must be either even or odd.
If someone asks you if you believe the number of jellybeans in the jar is even, you can and should say “no” if you haven’t counted them or otherwise gathered any evidence to support that conclusion. To believe something is to say you feel it is more likely true than false, and you can’t say that about the given proposition.
Importantly, this does not mean you do believe the number of jellybeans is odd. The fact that one of those two things must be true does not mean you have to pick one to believe and one to disbelieve. It is perfectly rational to reserve belief either way until you have evidence one way or the other. You do not believe it’s even, nor do you believe it’s odd.
So, if we define “atheist” as “someone who does not believe in any gods”, I think you meet the definition of atheist. Just like the person in the above example does not believe the jellybeans are even & also does not believe they are odd, you don’t need to believe “there are no gods anywhere” to not believe “there is at least one god”.
If you do not believe there is at least one god, don’t you automatically believe there is at most zero gods? Isn’t that how logic works? If you don’t know you say you don’t know, not you dont believe. When you say you do not believe you think have proof it isn’t…
The purpose of my jellybean thought exercise was to show that “I don’t know” and “I don’t believe” are not mutually exclusive. Basically:
I do not believe [x] != I believe [not x]
I don’t believe in String Theory. String Theory may be correct for all I know: I am not a physicist, and my understanding of String Theory is cursory at best.
Because I do not have enough evidence to warrant belief, I cannot say I believe in String Theory. But that same lack of understanding means I must also say I don’t believe that String Theory is false.
A human
Who cares? Why is everyone so concerned about labels? Just be your your own unique self and stop trying to fall into a category.
I always considered atheist to mean “don’t believe at all” ans agnostic as “willing to believe, but won’t live any differently”
If you want to start on a philosophical question, try to define the word “exists”. Write down a bunch of definitions, whichever are your favorite, and then see if the expression “God exists.” has meaning.
I must be like almost the opposite. I was obsessed with religion and philosophy although now im pretty athiest. So I kinda don’t care but for me its more that I looked into more than enough and made up my mind.
I call myself ‘functionally atheist’. I’m philosophically agnostic in that I hold no strong opinion on the existence of a god/gods as that is fundamentally unknowable but for all practical purposes I act as though there is no god.
deleted by creator
Not the answer to your question, but I find it important to point out, that atheist and non theist are not necessarily the same.
A non theist isn’t necessarily a non believer who rejects all religion like the general understanding of an atheist.
The Dalai Lama for example calls himself an non theist and so do I as a Buddhist. Buddhism is a believe system, a religion, that does not believe that there is a god or gods. Some subdivisions of buddhism believe in divine beings you can turn to and pray to, but they all used to be ordinary humans, same as the Buddha, who obtained enlightenment and transcended into a higher form of being.
