A is for Atheist

Atheism is strangely difficult to define.

The Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy defines atheism primarily in propositional terms. There are only two answers to the proposition 'is there a God?": 'yes', which is theism and 'no', which is atheism. Either there is a God or there isn't, which is a question of fact. It has nothing to do with belief. It is a proposition. Atheism is the proposition that there are no gods.

Many, though, prefer to describe atheism in psychological terms, as a belief or non-belief. According to the American Atheists (AA) website, atheism is a rejection of the assertion that there are gods. "To be clear: Atheism is not a disbelief in gods, or a denial of gods; it is a lack of belief in gods."

So, not a disbelief, but a lack of belief. To be... erm... clear.

AA's argument is that atheism is the default option until a person chooses to believe in God or gods. As the philosopher Antony Flew wrote in 1976, in his book with the same title, there is a "presumption of atheism". The onus to prove the existence of God is on the theist. Atheism, in this sense, does not require a positive belief. A new-born baby is an atheist. Indeed, we are all atheists until we positively choose not to be.

After listening to a theist's arguments for the existence of God, an atheist's response can legitimately be: "I remain unconvinced". It means that the famous message on the side of the bus - "There probably is no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" - is an atheist message, despite the element of doubt. As Richard Dawkins once put it: "We cannot prove that there is no God, but we can safely conclude that He is very very improbable indeed."

So, there is a distinction between:

- a belief there are no gods; and

- a non-belief that there are gods.

The latter is atheism, whereas - according to the AA website - the former is not ("atheism is not a disbelief in gods").

Yet it clearly is. Antony Flew described it as 'hard' or 'positive' atheism and there are many atheists who would say that this is precisely what they believe. Although Richard Dawkins is not officially one of them, he nonetheless called his most famous book 'The God Delusion', rather than 'I See Where You're Coming From, But I Remain Unconvinced'.

Indeed, until recently, 'hard atheism' was the only atheism. In 1953, Bertrand Russell wrote: "An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we know there is not. The agnostic suspends judgement, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial."

But, using the AA definition, this no longer applies. Agnosticism is no longer the fuzzy grey between the black and white of theism and atheism. "Agnostic isn't just a 'weaker' version of being an atheist," the AA website says. "It answers a different question. Atheism is about what you believe. Agnosticism is about what you know."

Yes, but.

On the basis that no-one knows, or can know, whether a God or gods exist, we are all agnostics. The Pope is an agnostic. Richard Dawkins is an agnostic. Friedrich 'God is Dead' Nietzsche was an agnostic. And the word loses all meaning.

This confusion over the definitions of atheism and agnosticism makes it difficult to assess how many atheists there are. Surveys suggest that between 8% and 13% of the world population describe themselves as 'convinced atheists'. In 2010, 20% of the EU population said that it did not believe in "any sort of spirit, God or life force".

A final point: whilst atheism may pertain to a non-belief that there are gods (or, as explained above, a belief that there are no gods), there is a distinction between that belief and a belief system. Atheism is just one piece in the jigsaw of a person's belief system. One of Ricky Gervais' lesser known Tweets puts it: "Saying [atheism] is a belief system is like saying not going skiing is a hobby". It is wrong to extrapolate a person's belief system based upon just one component. Atheists can be liberal, conservative, Stoic, Epicurean, Buddhist, humanist or indeed anything - indeed, according to one survey in 2014, 2% of Anglican priests believed that God was just a human construct.

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Written by Pete Mansfield