“Since the abstract concept of God is by definition unfalsifiable, any belief along the atheist-theistic spectrum is pointless.”
“No religious belief” is way too vague for that, “apatheism” is not quite accurate enough since it implies apathy toward the concept of the existence of a deity, along with apathy toward the existence of a deity (subtly different things), while the sentence I cited does not display the former. “Ignosticism” and “theological noncognitivism” come close, but substitute “meaningless” for “pointless”.
What do you think?
Posted: May 22nd 2010
Eric_PK
How about “silly”?
Or “confused”?
I don’t get why a concept being unfalsifiable means that it’s not justified to have an opinion about it. It may make it irrational to have a positive opinion about it, but not irrational to have a negative opinion about it.
Though I confess that I really don’t know what “abstract concept of god” means.
Oh, you were looking for a label? Well, labels are useful to the extent that they work as shorthand. Given that there is widespread disagreement and confusion on atheist and agnostic, trying to go beyond that seems pointless to me…
Posted: June 24th 2010
brian thomson www
I don’t know if there’s a single word for that, but it comes close to the original definition of Agnosticism:
Agnosticism is not a creed but a method, the essence of which lies in the vigorous application of a single principle… Positively the principle may be expressed as in matters of intellect, do not pretend conclusions are certain that are not demonstrated or demonstrable.
I’ve also seen the word Ignosticism used to describe something like that: the view that any speculation is pointless because the very concept of God is undefined. This has also been termed Theological Noncognitivism by some writers.
Just to clarify one point, though: atheism is not a belief, it is the absence of theistic belief. Atheists hold various intellectual opinions about the likelihood of a god or gods, and some are explicitly anti-religion, but the absence of theistic belief is what all atheists have in common. So, talk of an “atheist-theistic spectrum” might be taken the wrong way – as
if atheism is a subjective belief system.
Posted: May 23rd 2010