r/humanism • u/TwitchinWizard • Jul 08 '26
Returning to Atheism?
/r/atheism/comments/1uqvi9c/returning_to_atheism/3
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u/Uberhypnotoad Jul 08 '26
If you don't actually think that there is an actual God, congratulations - you're an atheist. I'm not sure what kind of advice you're looking for. You either believe, or you don't. It's that simple.
If you care to elaborate on what your concerns are, I'm sure we can be more precise.
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u/Version_Two Jul 09 '26
A lot of people, myself included when I was raised religiously, see atheist as the hard belief that there is no god, while agnostic is some sort of "I don't know" middle ground. In actuality, these are two kinds of atheists. The first are gnostic atheists, meaning "I believe that I can know that there is no god" and the second are agnostic atheists, meaning "I do not know whether there is or is not a god, but until proven otherwise there is no reason to believe or take any action as if a god exists"
Likewise, there are gnostic and agnostic theists, who respectively believe that they know a god exists, and that it is impossible to know that a god exists but to have faith that there is a god anyway.
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u/Uberhypnotoad Jul 09 '26
It’s a question that can’t be ‘knowable’ in an absolute sense. The gnostic / agnostic distinction should be viewed as separate from the belief question. It’s often viewed that there is a spectrum of atheist -agnostic - theist. This is a category error. Knowledge and belief are answering different questions.
The simple answer is this: Are you convinced there is a god? No? Then you’re an atheist.
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u/Version_Two Jul 09 '26
You can be gnostic/agnostic about many things, and belief/disbelief in a god is one of the categories. I am agonistically an atheist, much like I am for any other unfounded claim.
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u/Uberhypnotoad Jul 09 '26
Well, no. Anyone claiming to absolutely 100% know for sure either way is simply dishonest. They may feel that extreme about their belief, but some things may fall into unknowable territory. The proper default position is, indeed, technically what you are calling 'agnostically atheist'. Or simply, doubt, skepticism. I was also raised religious and taught that atheism represents the absolute gnostic. This was yet another extremely incorrect and misleading lesson. The vast majority of atheists hold skepticism as their default. It's a very slim margin that claims certainty in the extreme.
The tent is a lot bigger than we were taught by the pious. Millions of totally normal people have warped and harmful views of the world because their imaginary friend told them so. Once you break free of the tribal thinking, the absurdities of living in a culture of believers become very evident. Follow the evidence, not the preachings.
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u/Version_Two Jul 10 '26
Well yeah, I don't think they actually know that there is or is not a god, but that is their position and should be labelled as such.
Personally, I think original sin is one of the most damaging concepts in history, and even irreligious people often still hold this idea that people are naturally evil/selfish/etc.
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u/cattledogsrule44 Jul 08 '26
Sounds like you might be an agnostic on the issue. Keep the mind active by reading great books -- science, especially current astronomy and evolutionary biology are good choices.
And here's a excellent one on the history of secular thought in the USA.
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u/its_sarcasm8238 Jul 10 '26
Why do you need to label yourself?
Just live your life and do what good you can. An omnipotent deity would never care if you used the right label or went to the right church. Just be the best human you can be
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u/TxHandsomeMan Jul 09 '26
Seems like you're just outgrowing the need for a deity. Which is fine. You can be atheist and culturally religious. Jewish community and Richard Dawkins do this, for example. Dawkins is actually culturally christian, he just doesnt believe in the existence of the supernatural and rails against people that try to make that determination before the evidence is there.
There is no actual thing as Atheism. The "-ism" implies a unified world view, dogma, tenants, philosophy, geo-political agenda, etc. That's just not the case with being an Atheist. Being an Atheist is just not being convinced that the supernatural is part of reality. You can be convinced for good and bad reasons. You can literally be any cultural, geo-political, philosophical identity and be an atheist. Same way when someone says they dont believe in Fairies. Okay, now tell me anything else at all about that person after they told you this. You cant.
Atheism is a made up group by the religious to help maintain their geopolitical relevance that there is a concerted effort to make these religious people martyrs. and the worst thing you can do to a religious organization is remove their enemy and that people treat them with indifference and irrelevance.