Philosophers such as Antony Flew and Michael Martin have contrasted strong (positive) atheism with weak (negative) atheism. Strong atheism is the explicit affirmation that gods do not exist. Weak atheism includes all other forms of non-theism. According to this categorization, anyone who is not a theist is either a weak or a strong atheist. The terms weak and strong are relatively recent; however, the equivalent terms negative and positive atheism have been used in the philosophical literature and (in a slightly different sense) in Catholic apologetics. Under this demarcation of atheism, most agnostics qualify as weak atheists.

While agnosticism can be seen as a form of weak atheism, most agnostics see their view as distinct from atheism, which they may consider no more justified than theism, or requires an equal conviction. The supposed unattainability of knowledge for or against the existence of God is sometimes seen as indication that atheism requires a leap of faith. Common atheist responses to this argument include that unproven religious propositions deserve as much disbelief as all other unproven propositions, and that the unprovability of God’s existence does not imply equal probability of either possibility. Scottish philosopher J. J. C. Smart even argues that “sometimes a person who is really an atheist may describe herself, even passionately, as an agnostic because of unreasonable generalised philosophical scepticism which would preclude us from saying that we know anything whatever except perhaps the truths of mathematics and formal logic.” Consequently, some popular atheist authors such as Richard Dawkins prefer distinguishing theist, agnostic and atheist positions by the probability assigned to the statement “God exists”.

(Source: Wikipedia) 

Popularity: 23%