semantics, communitySo I have seen questions on this site regarding the definition of Atheism and it seems to me that these are many and varied, and that many people think that there is a definition that is true or false.
I take a slightly different approach, I would argue that definitions are formed by the community in its use of the term.
While there does seem to be discussion regarding whether an Atheist is someone who “does not believe God exists” or “believes God does not exist”, there does not seem to be many who argue that whether or not God exists is an irrelevant question.
If this strand of believe can be welcomed into the Atheist fold, what then defines atheism as at least this sub-community sees it. Is it a merely commitment to a secular ethos or is it something more substantial?
Edit:
To demonstrate that there is not consensus on the proper definition of Atheism I point to http://atheism.stackexchange.com/questions/746/is-an-atheist-knows-there-is-no-god-a-good-definition-of-the-term-atheist
Additionally, there does seem to be a fundamental difference between just the two options I lay out above, whether its is a non-belief about the existence of god or a belief about the non-existence of god that defines atheism. This is not a distinction even the post above dealt with thoroughly with individuals on both sides of the issue.
For what it’s worth: I have often seen the term apatheism being coined. I would say many of my scientific colleagues are in this category. They are so beyond the issue that they simply do not care anymore. They are de facto atheists, but because they do not really care about defending the issue, the term apatheism, a portmanteau of apathy and theism suits them well.
Atheism is about belief, or more accurately, the disbelief in any deities. Whether or not it matters is a different question and is not one that atheists are all agreed upon.
It is possible to have atheists who think it would be good to have a God. As some religious people portray God, he/she/it is a loving character who answers your prayers and guides you towards heaven.
Conversely, some atheists are aghast at the idea of gods, at least the god that is portrayed by Islam, Christianity or Judaism. The Old Testament/Qu’ran /Torah is filled with the idea of a vengeful god sending people to rape and pillage others.
Others wouldn’t mind either way and it would depend a lot on the definition of the gods and what they were like (loving or vengeful or both).
My view is that the question of Does it matter? is one that isn’t even worth considering until there is any substantial evidence to point towards the existence of gods. If we ever find that evidence (I don’t believe we will), then we should consider what it means and how it matters to us and even what we should do about it. I’d probably vote for holy disobedience against a god that I didn’t agree with.
Conclusion: no, this is not an inherit atheist attitude, it is a question that individual atheists, theists and agnostics alike can have different views about.
The only sense in which your proposal might fit with atheism, is in the “LaPlacian” sense. LaPlace, mathematician for Napoleon Bonaparte presented the emperor with the first model of the universe, with accurate planetary rotation and orbits. Napoleon is reputed to have asked, “And where does God fit into all of this?”
LaPlace reputedly replied, “Sir, I have no need of that hypothesis.”
God is an unnecessary, unproven assertion/hypothesis.
In THAT sense, whether or not God exists is moot to atheists. The neutral, defacto position upon birth is no belief in any gods, and if one were raised without indoctrination, and a good science teacher, one would be very unlikely to “need” to introduce the God concept to one’s worldview.
Once again, this debate is showing the ugly ramifications of the fact that the term was coined by believers and has always been USED by believers as a rhetorical master-stroke to position us in a defensive stance, reputedly denying that which they know is true. Sigh.
Atheist believe that God do not exist.
Agnostic believe that whether God exist or not is unknowable.
Non believers regroup people both and a lot of other people.
Saying that the existence of God does not matter is not exactly agnosticism but very close to it. It’s not atheist. It would a particular case of none believer.
– edit –
The first part is the classic definition. Some people consider that atheism include anybody which does not believe in a God. In which case, your attitude would be atheist. Ultimately, it depends of the definition you choose.
Having a position that says “it doesn’t matter whether God exists” seems to avoid the god question. It may not matter to me whether or not Pluto is a planet but I’m still going to lean one way or the other in my beliefs.
I think most groups would say that it matters. If god does exist, then we’re all wrong, and that’d be a problem. If god showed up and started doing miraculous shit, we would have to re-evaluate our beliefs.
Most of us believe that god does not exist, and we tend to believe it because there is no evidence to the contrary (or because Dawkins says so, for some people here). It matters to us that he doesn’t exist because there are large numbers of people who think he does and justify crazy shit in his name.
Even agnostics wouldn’t say it “doesn’t matter”. They’d say they “don’t know” and they may say that it’s actually impossible to know, but they wouldn’t say that it doesn’t matter.
The existence/nonexistence of god is a pretty big issue. If you care at all, it'll matter. If actual empirical evidence ever arrives, it will change everything.
It matters if God exists or not, either the world is knowable (there is no god/gods) or the world is unknowable (there is a god/gods) If you call yourself an atheist then there is no god/gods period.
Whether (a) god exists or not is simply not a very interesting question to many atheists I’ve known. It’s like debating whether Santa Claus exists or not. If one person is a believer, and the other person is a non-believer, the conversation generally devolves very quickly into pointless rhetoric and name-calling. If both parties are non-believers, they’re not going to sit around and talk about how much they don’t believe, (unless they really have an axe to grind, I suppose.)
So I believe that the question is unimportant to many atheists in that it is uninteresting, and there are generally more important and more exciting things to talk about.
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.