
Originally Posted by
fanofclendennon
I’ve seen agnosticism used in the context of “not sure” but that’s incorrect. It’s not some sort of “halfway house” between believing and not believing. It addresses the question of knowledge, not belief.
Indeed there are clubs for atheists that express and espouse politicial beliefs, namely that government in specific and the public in general have no right to foist their beliefs into our lives. Clubs also articulate reasons why they don’t believe in God. And in a world filled with theists, they want people to know that it’s ok to not believe in God and to not feel pressured by the majority to believe. You can still enjoy national holidays like Christmas without going to church or professing belief in a Savior, etc. These clubs address behavior, not a system of beliefs.
To be fair, David Silverman’s club, American Atheists, does go as far as to say “There is no God,” a stance I personally am uncomfortable with since that is a claim that takes on a burden of proof.
But we’re not talking about individual clubs but rather atheism as a concept. It encompasses no belief system. You might even say it’s a “non belief” system.
I’ve heard it said, often, that atheism is responsible for much of the horror in our world history, citing as examples dictators like Stalin and Hitler. That’s every bit as accurate as saying people with mustaches are responsible for these horrors. That they were atheists was just as irrelevant as the fact that they wore facial hair.