(My) Atheism Explained

Please don't view the following as an attempt by myself to school you in any way; this is the result of asking myself the question what label would best suit my opinions on religion.

_{Image by KirsiV - source: Pixabay}

All my life I've intermittently called myself an atheist and an agnostic, never really paying attention which label to use; I've always considered them both to have the same meaning. But they don't. And the difference isn't subtle either, which makes me even more guilty of not using the right words. This might sound like I'm nitpicking, but it's in my opinion very important to be precise with the use of words, as they are the best tools we have for sharing our inner thoughts, and understanding each others inner thoughts is the very basis upon we build consensus, and that enables us to cooperate successfully. There's no way for us to convey our inner truths perfectly, we can't literally share our thoughts; mind-melting is for Vulcans only. We use labels, words, that represent aspects of our inner worlds to best approximate our inner, first person perspective on things. With these labels we label other things we can not exactly grasp, like persons, or groups of persons.

So until now I've used the labels "atheist" and "agnostic" to label myself in the labeling game we all play when sharing our thoughts and opinions. But for any discussion, meeting or debate to be effective, to make sure we understand each others opinions, we must first make sure that we agree on the meaning of the words we use; the best way to do this is to use the words that correctly describe what we're trying to convey. After refreshing myself on the exact meaning of the words "atheist" and "agnostic", I've come to the conclusion that the correct way to label myself is atheist agnostic; turns out I'm both!

"Theism" is a BELIEF in the existence of God or Gods. More specifically a God or Gods who exist in our dimension, that can intervene in our lifes and can listen to our prayers. "Deism" is the belief in a creator outside our dimension, a supernatural being that created the universe, but can not intervene in our lifes nor listen to our prayers. These words specifically deal with what we BELIEVE, and how strongly we believe it. On this scale, I'm definitely an atheist. I do not believe in a God or Gods who can intervene in this universe, especially the Abrahamic God who is also said to be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and omnibenevolent; logic clearly dictates no being can be all of these things at the same time. I'm sure you're all familiar with this question: "If God is all-powerful, can He make a stone so heavy that He can't lift it?" I think it's highly improbable that such a God exists.

_{Image by pixundfertig - source: Pixabay}

On the flip-side I recognize that there's no way for me, or anyone else for that matter, to know anything at all about the supernatural, if such a thing exists. In that sense I'm an agnostic; there's no way for me to know for sure that a deistic God, or even a theistic God exists. The Greek word "gnosis" means "knowledge" or "insight", and I can have no knowledge about anything that takes place outside the space-time I live in. I have a strong suspicion that a deistic God also doesn't exist, at least not one that created our universe, because that would imply that such a being would be able to interact with our plane of existence; He, She or It would then also be able to intervene, and then we're back to the theistic God I consider to be the least probable of all God-propositions.

I've finally found the right label to describe my inner perspective on God and religion; I'm an atheist agnostic, and I'm pleased to meet you. Thanks for sitting through this inner search with me, at last finding the correct words, the right label to convey my stance on religion.

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