WescNet

Agnosticism and Atheism

First, what are atheists and agnostics? Well, there are two types of each:

Atheists

Implicit atheism states no belief in God but no disbelief either. Synonymous to nontheist.

Explicit atheism is certainty that there is no God. Achieved not through lack of evidence for God's existence but through logical contradictions in God's existence.

Agnostics

Atheistic agnosticism claims that it's unknowable whether or not God exists.

Theistic agnosticism claims that God does exist but that his nature is unknowable.

Therefore, there's more than one differences between atheism and agnosticism. It depends on which type of atheism and agnosticism you're referring to.

However, an implicit atheist could simply be called a "nontheist," while "explicit atheist" has no such synonym. It everybody used nontheist instead of implicit atheist then we'd have a lot less confusion.

Now go read about why I'm agnostic.

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Luca K. B.Masters
Last modified: 29 Sept. 2001.
Copyright 2001-2002 by General Wesc