Possible to be both Athiest and Anti thiest?


Internetexplorer968's avatar
Ok, before you comment, keep in mind this is only about chosing betweeen the concept Athiesm and/or Anti theism in general.
I had a discussion with a few people that claim a person can be an Atheist (someone who doesn't believe in deities), and an anti theist (someone who opposes religion.)
It sounds redundant to me to do both. Some athiests don't like the idea of opposing religion, some do.
Thoughts?
Comments85
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Kowasaci's avatar
Antitheism implies atheism.
Chiminix's avatar
It's possible to be an agnostic and an anti-theist.

There's one on here but I forget his name
Kowasaci's avatar
McLandis?

I always seem to argue with him. Every time I see that fucking south park grin in the avatar corner I have nightmares.
zharth's avatar
I'm actually a misotheist. I think God is cruel, and undeserving of our worship.
Internetexplorer968's avatar
Cruel, how? Please justify.
zharth's avatar
Just look around you. Life is unfair, and filled with suffering. And God's hand is absent in all we do. If there's a God, then he would have to be a pretty huge dick. I'd like to meet him so I could give him a good punch in the face.
Internetexplorer968's avatar
Well actually ever thought that there was a ruler of earth?
zharth's avatar
What, you mean like the President of the United States?
ReptillianSP2011's avatar
Anti-theist = Against holding the belief that god exists
Atheist=A position which is basically the lack of an affirmative belief in the existence of god.

Anti-theistic is not the same thing as anti-religious as anti-religious=Against religions in general.

Against holding the belief that god exists =/= Against religions in general

Thus, Anti-theist=/=Anti-religious

It seems that it's mandatory to be an atheist if one were to be an anti-theist as evidenced by the fact that a person who supports anti-theism must be against holding the belief that god exists. So therefore, it is possible to be an atheist while being an anti-theist. 
MatRou's avatar
Stating one is both anti-theist and atheist is a bit useless, because you can't exactly be anti-theist without being atheist as well. Meanwhile being atheist does absolutely not mean being anti-theist.
PatternVSUser's avatar
I think you have to be an atheist in order to be an anti-theist. Atheism is merely not believing in god. Anti-theism is hostility towards religion in general - you reject the general idea of religion, not necessarily a specific one.
skulkey's avatar
think of atheism as a subset of worldviews (religion would be another subset).  now atheism itself has a subset called antitheism.  atheism actually has an intersecting set called spirituality (i.e. it is possible to not believe in god(s) and still believe in spirit).  but the antitheist subset does not intersect with spirituality, and is generally opposed to it.
Internetexplorer968's avatar
kitsumekat's avatar
Religious or non-religious, you can still be an asshole.
LBAMagic's avatar
from a recent forum discussion on the definition of atheist i found out there are basically two types of theist and two type of atheist as follows.
  1. Gnostic-Theist (Theist): I KNOW there is a God/gods.
  2. Agnostic-Theist: I won't pretend to KNOW, but I BELIEVE there is a God/gods.
  3. Agnostic-Atheist (Atheist): I won't pretend to KNOW there isn't a God/gods, but I haven't seen sufficient evidence to accept any God/gods [i.e, I have lack of belief in a God/gods].
  4. Gnostic-Atheist: I KNOW there are NO God/gods.

I believe for most part we fall under the "agnostic" category unless one is some sort of fundamentalist / extremist. more from this article "atheism: understanding a lack of belief" at this link www.lackofbelief.com/.

Internetexplorer968's avatar
LBAMagic's avatar
yep. i don't know who wrote. i found it by google search. i think it shows that some of the arguments we have in these forums is that we don't clearly identify from what position we argue from. also sometimes we swing unknowingly from agnostic into the more dangerous and unprovable realm of gnostic. i say dangerous because in the gnostic realm one risks a closed mind mentality of "guilty until proven innocent".
Internetexplorer968's avatar
Wow, guilt until proven innocent? Today's society's mentality is like that.