"Tim Rhodes" <proftim@speakeasy.org> wrote:
> I would say it can be either. I know some people who were raised
> as "capital-a" Atheists (with the accompanying distinction memes
> and prejudices against all things religious) and others for whom
> atheism is not a meme, but simply the default value left by not
> possessing the <God> meme.
I also recognize the distinction between strong (capital A) Atheism and
weak atheism -- the former being "belief in the non-existence of deity"
while the latter is "disbelief in the existence of deity" or, to be more
precise, "*lack* of belief in deity". The former is a positive assertion
of non-existence, while the later is merely the default position in any
ontological argument...
I would characterize my own position as a mix of the two -- weak atheist
with respect to most deities, but strong Atheist with respect to some
others I have studied in more detail.
ERiC