Atheist/Agnostic 101
Atheism means literally “without belief in a deity.” The Greek prefix a means without or none and theism means “belief in a deity.” Theism is derived from the Greek theos which means god. However, atheism does not mean “without god” but rather “without belief in a god.” This is an important distinction.
The label atheism would likely not exist without the suggestion that gods do exist. The idea of labeling people who do not take part in a particular activity may seem strange. Such as labeling people who do not collect butterflies, or labeling people who do not play tennis. This is why atheism is not itself a belief or belief system, but the lack of a belief or belief system. I cannot for example prove Zeus does not exist, though I lack belief in Zeus. This type of atheism is also called soft atheism or weak atheism.
Strong atheism is the position that god, as people describe the concept, does not exist (as a positive assertion). This type of atheism has been called: compulsory atheism, new atheism, strong atheism, anti-theism, or anti-dogmatism. Strong atheism is a subset of atheism. Not all atheists are strong atheists.
Agnosticism
While atheism is concerned with belief in a deity, agnosticism is concerned with knowledge. A person who is agnostic is admitting to a certain degree that they are without enough adequate knowledge on the subject to offer a meaningful opinion.
Agnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis and means literally “without knowledge.” Agnostic generally takes two common forms in argument. First is the expression from the viewpoint of the individual and the individual’s knowledge. An agnostic might find the definition of the concept god to be lacking or contradictory or conversely might admit to being uninformed. This type of agnosticism is called soft or weak agnosticism.
The other common form of agnosticism is the point of view that no one possesses enough knowledge to make a reasonable opinion. And that mankind possibly will never possess this knowledge. That it is unknowable and might remain so. This type of agnosticism is also called (you might have guessed) hard or strong agnosticism.
Atheist-Agnostic
Since atheism is concerned with deities, and agnosticism is concerned with knowledge, there is no reason that the terms need be mutually exclusive. Nor does it seem that agnosticism is a “middle point” between two extremes being atheism and theism. In fact, the idea that agnosticism is a mid-way point of view is a common misconception of agnosticism. A person may be be both an atheist and an agnostic. It is even possible to be a theist and an agnostic depending upon what knowledge of god you claim.
Common Misconceptions
Atheism is a belief system
Atheists have faith just like theists
Atheists think themselves the highest authority
Atheists live meaningless lives and have no hope or purpose
Atheists believe in “NoGod”
Atheists hate God
Atheists are arrogant
Atheists claim knowledge that no gods exist or can exist
