this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2025

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Schools in Texas are forcing teachers to put the 10 Commandments up… (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by andros_rex@lemmy.world to c/atheism@lemmy.world

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[–] lime@feddit.nu 22 points 1 week ago (2 children)

atheism isn't a belief system though. it's the absence of belief. if the teachers are forced to do stuff based on belief, the only malicious compliance that works within the rules is to treat all belief systems equally. science is also not a belief system.

[+] NABDad@lemmy.world -10 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I disagree.

Agnosticism is the absence of belief.

Atheism is believing that there is no God.

[–] TootGuitar@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Theism is the belief in a god or gods.

Atheism is the lack of that belief. You can be an atheist and simply lack belief, or you can affirmatively claim that no gods exist.

Many atheists are somewhat in the middle: for example, there are certain god claims that are so patently ridiculous (e.g. Xenu) that I do claim that they don’t exist, whereas there are others that are probably unfalsifiable (e.g. a deistic god) and so I don’t think it’s possible to make a legitimate claim that they don’t exist.

Agnosticism deals with knowledge, not belief. It’s right there in the word: “gnostos” is the Greek word for knowledge.

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

You have those backwards. Just FYI.

From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
atheism
  n 1: the doctrine or belief that there is no God [syn:
       {atheism}, {godlessness}] [ant: {theism}]
  2: a lack of belief in the existence of God or gods


agnosticism
  n 1: a religious orientation of doubt; a denial of ultimate
       knowledge of the existence of God; "agnosticism holds that
       you can neither prove nor disprove God's existence"
  2: the disbelief in any claims of ultimate knowledge [syn:
     {agnosticism}, {skepticism}, {scepticism}]

[–] lime@feddit.nu -2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

this is a problem the movement has had forever. people who call themselves atheist but specifically "do not believe in God", with the name capitalised, ruin it for the rest of us.

agnosticism is specifically a both-sides belief. actual modern atheism is about theory of work. people who grow up christian and then turn against their upbringing think they're atheist but they're actually "achristian".

[–] SereneSadie@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nothing like gatekeeping something as basic as not believing in myths.

[–] TootGuitar@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

I understand where you’re coming from and I probably wouldn’t have worded things in the same way the person you’re replying to is, but there are a lot of misconceptions out there around what atheism is. For example I’ve talked to people who exit Christianity and simultaneously call themselves atheists while developing a belief in a different god, and this is objectively not atheism. Similarly, there’s often an atheism vs. agnosticism confusion which I addressed in a different comment here.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

I always think, there's atheists and there's angry atheists

But yes achristian works.