lixluke said:
There are 2 definitions being discussed here.
Definition 1: Atheist necessarily believes that God does not exist.
Definition 2: Atheist does not believe that God exists, but does not necessarily believe that God does not exist.
Paramaters must be established.
Agree or disagree?:
"According to definition 1, an agnostic cannot be an atheist. But, according to definition 2, an agnostic is a type of atheist."
Again I find the argument superficial, but okay.
I disagree and reassert my previous definitions as the correct ones:
Theism is "
belief in the existence of God or Gods".
A-theism is "
without belief in the existence of God or Gods".
One of the problems here is that agnosticism is an epistemological position and not necessarily a statement of belief. While traditionally it was used to describe a theistically positive position it is equally valid in a theistically negative position.
In plain English we might say:
"I believe that God does exist but I do not have proof of God's existence."
or "I do not believe that God exists but I do not have proof he does not exist".
Or refined:
Agnostic Theistic: "belief that god exists".
Agnostic Atheistic: "without belief that god exists"
Note that neither position asserts knowledge. Both positions are agnostic or "weak" even though the former is theistic and the latter is atheistic. Now let's add to this the gnostic or "strong" positions:
Gnostic Theistic: "knowledge that god exists"
Gnostic Atheistic: "knowledge that god does not exist"
The other terms remain problematic; we still must define what knowledge is, what existence is, and what god is. Otherwise all 4 statements are meaningless.
~Raithere