this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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Atheism

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

TL;DR: The study is talking about agnostics, and grouping atheists with them.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No, agnosticism is a whole other issue from any of this. Agnosticism, technically speaking, is the position "it is impossible to know whether a god or gods exist." That's a separate position from "I do not believe that gods exist", "I believe that gods do not exist", and "I believe that gods exist." You can be an agnostic theist or a non-agnostic atheist. They're along two different axes, like the Dungeons and Dragons alignment system with the law/order and good/evil axes.

Unfortunately the term has gained some additional meanings in common parlance, where it can commonly mean "I'm an atheist/theist but I don't want to say that because it gets me in trouble." Or "I'm not sure what I think so I'm going with the option that sounds the most unsure."

It's led to a huge mess when trying to categorize belief systems in polls like this one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Interesting, I didn't realize that. Thank you