Some thoughts about 'atheism', 'theism' and 'agnosticism'

It is common for people to describe themselves in relation to the question of the existence of God as 'atheist', 'theist' or 'agnostic'. Even before we get into the interminable debate as to whether there really is such a thing as God, I think there are a few things to be clarified in terms of how these labels are used. The following points are criticisms of what I take to be common assumptions concerning the use of the terms 'atheist', 'theist' and 'agnostic'.

'Atheist'

It is popular among self-confessed atheists to define atheism as ‘lack of belief in anything supernatural.’ This is handy for the atheist, since in the famous debate over where the burden of proof lies, it is a common argument to claim that the burden does not lie with the atheist, who has a mere lack of belief in God; rather, the burden is on the theist to give evidence for his / her positive assertion that there is a God. However, ‘lack of belief in God’ is a very bad definition of atheism, since it is true of rocks, camels and Christmas trees, which lack all beliefs, including about God. It would be an abuse of the word ‘atheism’ to refer to a rock as an atheist, so this definition clearly will not suffice. It is also insufficient for distinguishing atheists from agnostics, who also lack belief in God. Though it may suit the atheist in debate to characterize his / her position in terms of lack of belief, rather than a positive belief of the same type as theism, it is very hard to accurately do so. 'A belief that there is no God', which sounds more traditional, also sounds like a more accurate definition of 'atheism'.

'Theist'
There are so many uses of the word ‘God’ that the term is practically ambiguous. Restricting ‘theism’ to ‘Christian monotheism’ as is commonly done is too restrictive, since there exists monotheisms in many other cultures. The scale of religious conviction is a continuum, with very weak theisms positing the existence of a creating and sustaining ‘mother nature’ type force, and very strong theisms positing the existence of a single, powerful divine mind. Perhaps we might define theism as ‘belief in a creator and sustainer of the universe.’ However, this is too loose: belief in a scientific law (common to theists and non-theists alike) might well be held to fall under this definition. Should we then include creative intelligence in the definition of theism? No, since ‘intelligence’ is also ambiguous, and there are many theists who do not think of God as a giant, powerful disembodied mind (quite a crude conception), but something more abstract. 

'Agnostic'

Agnosticism, taken as an ‘I don’t know’ position, is commonly criticized as being too weak, a kind of cowardly middle-man position held by the person who lacks the conviction to commit to either atheism or theism. However, the strength of an intellectual position should not be judged on the content of the belief itself, but on the amount of assessment, deliberation and criticism that has been invested in that position, and the strength to which the belief is held. Therefore, one can be a very strong agnostic if, after deliberating long and hard and weighing up the evidence, one decides that we don’t know / can’t know enough to assent to God’s existence or reject God’s existence. It's clear that agnosticism can be as firm a positive belief about the world as atheism or theism. At the very least, an agnostic must have considered the question of God's existence, if only for a second.

'I don't care'
It is also widely held that ‘atheism’, ‘agnosticism’ and ‘theism’ (or ‘religious belief’ for the purposes of this point) exhaust the possibilities concerning intellectual attitudes about God. The question ‘are you atheist, theist or agnostic?’ implies that one must fit somewhere here, perhaps on a continuum between strong atheist and strong theist. Richard Dawkins, in 'The God Delusion', introduces a similar 7-point scale. However, this is simply false, since the three categories are not exhaustive. This is because, as argued above, agnosticism is a positive belief about the world, the agnostic having actively concluded that, based on the evidence, we simply don’t (or can’t) know if God exists or not, based on at least a shred of consideration of the question. Agnosticism does not, therefore, cover the sizeable group of people who haven’t for a minute considered the question of God at all: ‘I don’t know’ is not the same as ‘I don’t care.’ He / she who has not to any extent considered God’s existence will have no belief about God’s existence, and will have come to no conclusions; therefore, to label such a person ‘agnostic’, as is popular, would be false. This person has not joined the debate; therefore such labeling is not justified. Rather than create a new term for people who have never considered God’s existence (such as ‘I-don’t-care-ists’ or some more catchy name), it is more sensible, I think, to consider such people as located outside the continuum from atheist to theist. Therefore, the three categories ‘atheist’, ‘agnostic’ and ‘theist’ are not exhaustive, and should not be used as if they are: they describe only a sub-set of human beings.

Really great introductions to philosophy

I thought that since this is a popular philosophy blog, I should at some point list some of the best popular philosophy books I've come across which serve as an introduction to the subject. I'll stick the list in the sidebar as well for future reference and keep adding to it.

What to read

- The Problems of Philosophy - Bertrand Russell. A bit dated in its theories (sense-data, anyone?), but still an excellent introduction by the man who was largely responsible for giving 20th Century philosophy the go-ahead.

- Think - Simon Blackburn. This is on everybody's list, but really does deserve a mention. Short and sharp, like James Randi.

- The Riddles of Existence - Sider/Conee. Great introduction to metaphysics (the study of the nature of reality) by two leading contemporary philosophers.

- The Making of a Philosopher - Colin McGinn. Another great 'intellectual autobiography' which conveys philosophy with enthusiasm is Brian Magee's 'Confessions of a Philosopher.'

- Meditations - Descartes. Perhaps the most important text in the history of philosophy for philosophy today, and remarkably clearly written even by modern standards.

- Philosophy Bites - Edmonds/Warburton. The series of podcasts on which it is based are outstanding.

What philosophers think

A philosophical variant of Michaelangelo's 'The Creation of Adam.'

Philpapers.org conducted a survey a few years ago into the views of contemporary academic philosophers on a range of issues. The survey can be found here: http://philpapers.org/surveys/. In amongst the jargon, there are interesting findings to be had.

The survey shows that 72.8% of philosophers (faculty members, sample of nearly 1000) ‘accept or lean towards’ atheism, whilst only 14.6% ‘accept or lean towards‘ theism, the view that there exists a creator and sustainer of the universe. 12.5% were undecided.

What I find most interesting about the study is the correlative data - that is, taking views on a particular area and seeing how they correlate with views on a different area. You might expect, since ‘materialism’ these days is often used (misleadingly) as a synonym for ‘atheism’, that the vast majority of atheist philosophers are physicalists/materialists (see post - The Explanatory Gap). The survey shows this to be false. 67.9% of atheist philosophers call themselves physicalists, which leaves almost 20% who describe themselves as ‘non-physicalists.‘ (12% remained undecided on the issue, or refused to commit to either category).

Perhaps even more interestingly, 22.3% of theists call themselves physicalists, and thus commit themselves to the view that all that exists is physical matter. However, this is less contradictory than we might at first think - physicalism, construed as a view about human minds and the universe we inhabit, doesn’t rule out a God existing outside the universe, or a God not ‘existing' in the ordinary spatial sense. Nevertheless, the fact that 59.7% of theists are non-physicalists does indicate a predictable sympathy between the two views. Once you admit that there is mental stuff, I suppose you are less likely to find the notion of a non-physical being such as God suspicious for reductive reasons. (To say nothing of the role of the 'soul' in Christian religious thought).

Presenting ‘majority arguments’ as conclusively supporting a particular view (i.e ‘this view is true because the majority of people think it’) is a big mistake. We cannot conclude from the fact that 72.8% of philosophers are atheists that atheism is true - majorities can be seriously wrong in their views, as history has shown. Statistics should in any case be treated with caution. Nevertheless, the fact that a vast majority of philosophers are atheists is at least suggestive. Whether we draw any further conclusions here depends on how we view philosophers in general - are they skilled investigators into the fabric of reality, or just bearded men with weird views? Sadly, and most often unfairly, they are regularly seen by the public eye as falling into the latter category.

Philosophy of...

The School of Athens - Raphael

Philosophy can sometimes be frustrating, and sometimes near-impossible (unless you’re one of those people with particularly penetrating philosophical-logical insight, of which there are few, myself obviously not included). Insofar as ‘developments’ can take place in the philosophical community, these have generally been down to a handful of extremely gifted individuals (perhaps the same goes for science too). The rest of us can but ponder and remain uncertain, but this itself can be rewarding. The purpose of this blog is to share some of the more interesting philosophical puzzles I’ve come across during my degree, and perhaps introduce some new ideas. Hopefully, some of you will find it mildly interesting!

Suffice to say, none of these ideas are mine, but then these days, nothing is really written in philosophy that hasn’t been written before in some shape or form. However, popular philosophy writing has never been more popular than in the present cultural climate - ‘popular philosophers’ such as Julian Baggini, AC Grayling and (more tenuously) Alain de Botton have been selling plenty of books on general philosophical topics. The excellent ‘philosophy bites’ series of podcasts has also played a large part in introducing ‘proper philosophy’ to the public in an accessible way - I highly recommend it. With this blog, I want to contribute in some humble way to this movement of the popularizing of philosophy, and try to convince a few of you that it’s not so boring, obscure and irrelevant as many assume.

Please leave comments if the mood takes you. I'll add new posts whenever I have the time.