Reader Questions About Agnosticism And Atheism

Carl Sagan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)I receive more correspondence via email than I can answer. While some of it is hate mail from enraged Christians, Muslims, or other atheists, some of it is the sort of thing I wish I had more time to answer. With that in mind, I'd like to provide brief responses to two questions I received from a reader via email. I figured if I was going to take the time to do so, I might as well turn it into a brief post.Here were the questions: * What's the difference between atheism and agnosticism? * Also, why atheism? Why not deism or romanticism or pantheism...? You know, why this belief over somewhat (kinda, sorta) similar ones?The first question about the difference between atheism and agnosticism is a common one. The short version is that they are answers to different questions. Atheism is an answer to the question of whether one believe in god(s); agnosticism is an answer to the level of certainty one claims with regard to the existence of gods. The diagram pictured here should help. I also addressed this previously in a post called Understanding Atheism and Agnosticism.The second question seems to be a more personal one about why I selected atheism over the other options mentioned. It is my understanding that these other options all posit god(s), meaning that they all make the theistic belief claim. I do not see any evidence that justifies this claim, and so, I am an atheist. Another way to say it would be to say that I find no more evidence for pantheism, deism, etc. as I do for monotheism.I agree with Carl Sagan's assertion that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The claim that any sort of god or gods exist is truly extraordinary. Not only do I not find extraordinary evidence to suggest such entities exist; I find no evidence whatsoever that they do. Subscribe to Atheist RevolutionCopyright (c) 2014 Atheist Revolution.