h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Atheism - Update - A18396309
Author: Alex 'Tufty' Ashman [!] - U566116


This is an update for A254477

I've looked through all the conversations and made a lot of changes while also adding quite a lot of new material. Hopefully I haven't made any silly mistakes or put anything in a way that will offend someone, but if I have I ask that you make your posts clear and to the point. No double-glazing salesmen please.

Thanks,

Alex

Excellent, Alex.

There has recently been a discussion on the Moral Majority thread as to whether atheism can be considered a belief system. I fully approve, though, of the way it is presented in this entry.

Might it in fact be better to either remove the reading list or put it into a paragraph (here is this book; here is what it's about)? It may just be me, but I dislike seeing lists of resources in entries.

Ok, the list has gone

Just had a thought - "but also provides pretexts for hatred which are exploited by a minority of believers" might seem to be aimed at a certain religion, so I've added a footnote noting that this is not the case.

Looks good - I like that paragraph much better.

Very minor point. Your list of Common Misconceptions looks odd, because you don't have ... tags around it, and the s should be inside the s, not outside. Looks good.

Sorted

I've added another section - "Subgroups of Atheism" - as I thought they deserved a mention. I don't intend to link to any specific examples, though.

You're missing a word in the secularism section: "blasphemy should not *be* criminalised". I think it should also be "Note *that*" in the following sentence.

Corrected

Coming along rather nicely. I hadn't noticed the revision-in-progress.

Regarding Agnosticism --

Agnosticism is not a 'middle ground' between theism and atheism, but is more descriptive of individual theists and atheists, imo.

If agnosticism means 'without knowledge' regarding the existence of god, that seems to infer a suspension of judgement, or the possibility of knowing whether or not a god exists.

This has little to do with the actual believing or not believing.
Faith implies believing in something in the absence of evidence -- so an 'agnostic theist' would believe, and be perfectly comfortable not really 'knowing', whereas an 'agnostic atheist' would not believe, and also not particularly care.

And:

"Thus it is only the so-called 'strong' atheists that show an absolute disbelief in god."

Is there such a thing as a less than absolute disbelief?
I think one either believes or does not.

All atheists regard the statement, 'God exists' as untrue.
Strong atheists actively assert the statement is false


Perhaps: 'Thus it is only the so-called 'strong' atheists that formally assert the non-existence of god(s)'

I've made some changes - I've reworded the agnosticism bit to make it clear that agnosticism isn't to do with beliefs, but to do with knowledge. Oh and I'm quite surprised I made the mistake of putting "Agnostics believe that..."

As for the word 'absolute' - some think that belief and disbelief are a spectrum, so I'll keep it in there to highlight that this sort of atheism isn't half-hearted. I've added the words 'formally assert' to make the definition clearer.



Alex

>some think that belief and disbelief are a spectrum<



So someone could 'nearly believe'?

Isn't that like: 'almost a virgin', 'half dead' or 'just about flying'?



Here, have some almost but not quite entirely unlike

Nice update.

I found the section on Weak and Strong Atheism a little hard to follow. Possibly needs shorter sentences, without . Could it be made clearer by using bullet points? Strong Atheists don't believe in: ... Weak Atheists differ from this because: ...

In the list of Subgroups of Atheism a link might be worthwhile to add for The Brights http://www.the-brights.net/ for those who hold a naturalistic worldview, which is free of supernatural and mystical elements (so no belief in gods, fairies, astrology, feng shui, healing power of crystals, etc.)

I didn't think the link to the Entry on the psychological explanation of behaviour Humanistic Theory A147151 was relevant to Humanism, which isn't the same thing at all. I'm not convinced (as you state) that the theory encourages the humanist worldview. Admittedly there doesn't appear to be a better link to humanism in an EG entry (yet). I would link to http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/cms/

"Humanism is the belief that we can live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs. Humanists make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values. We seek to make the best of the one life we have by creating meaning and purpose for ourselves. We take responsibility for our actions and work with others for the common good."

Pimms

Ok, I've made some changes and added those links - I suppose a couple of examples would be useful - and I've tried to improve the weak/strong bit.

Alex

See if this is any use to you:

Atheism itself is sometimes referred to as 'weak atheism'.
It is the lack of belief in the existence of god(s)

Strong atheism positively affirms the non-existence of god(s), and formally asserts an absolute disbelief in god(s).
Some so-called 'strong atheists' claim the god notion itself is not a valid concept, since it lacks meaningfulness and coherency.

Agnostics may or may not believe in god(s).
Agnosticism, not unreasonably, claims it is impossible to determine absolute truth.
Subsequently, it suspends judgement regarding the possible existence of god(s), and makes no argument either for or against believing in god(s)

Perhaps some (weak) atheists call themselves agnostics to avoid the atheist stigma

After a quick read, I think the guide entry on Agnosticism could do with a bit of re-writing...



Maybe I'll put something together....

I think I've managed to improve it a little

Is it worth mentioning some famous atheists? Douglas Adams, allegedly Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Clarence Darrow, Voltaire (though he converted to Catholicism on his deathbed), and sundry others. There are some great atheism-related quotations out there, too.

Hmmm - that might be an idea, provided I can find a list that doesn't consist alomost entirely of scientists. I'll have a go.