Originally Posted by Zolan
I glanced at the thread, and people made assumptions that they were not mutually exclusive based upon diagrams created by people who also made assumptions.
It's a simple distinction.
Atheist = A God does not exist (100% certainty in belief)
Agnostic = There is no way of knowing. I cannot be certain.
Theist = A God exists (100% certainty in belief)
Agnostic Atheist is simply a term used by those too unwilling to stop calling themselves an Atheist, when they are in fact Agnostic, in that certainty is not present. Therefore, they attach the term and try to place themselves somewhere in-between due to the realization that even they cannot prove themselves correct.
The same is true of those who call themselves Agnostic Theists.
The terms themselves are combinations of positives and negatives. If you do not believe with 100% certainty that a God does or does not exist, you are by definition Agnostic. Nothing more, nothing less. Therefore, attaching the two positions together creates a void identifier.
Gnostic Atheist and Gnostic Theist, on the other hand, ARE possible combinations, therefore that much is correct.
Just because someone made a fancy diagram doesn't mean it's correct.
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"insert sigh"
Being an atheist DOES NOT mean 100% certainty that god doesn't exist. That is a horribly arrogant position to hold. Are there atheists who hold this position? Yes, do all of us? No.
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