tut comments on Atheism = Untheism + Antitheism - Less Wrong

86 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 01 July 2009 02:19AM

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Comment author: prase 01 July 2009 08:52:13AM 0 points [-]

I have never understood the difference between weak and strong atheism. Either I think God probably exists or that he probably doesn't, but what's the difference between lack of belief in a proposition and a belief in its converse? Is it that, say, who thinks that God doesn't exist with p=0.8 is a weak atheist while with p=1-10^(-9) he would be a strong one? Or is a weak atheist only who has suspended judgement (what's the difference from an agnostic, then)?

Comment author: tut 02 July 2009 12:42:24PM 0 points [-]

The difference is what would happen if they were to encounter evidence for the existence of a deity. A weak atheist would start to believe no matter how weak the evidence, wheras the strong atheist would only start to believe if the evidence was stronger than his prior evidence against god. And the strong atheist would probably be much more dilligent in trying to defeat arguments for god.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 02 July 2009 05:55:26PM *  1 point [-]

The difference is what would happen if they were to encounter evidence for the existence of a deity.

But then it won't be God, it'll be the specific thing which this is evidence of. "God" is a word gone wrong.

Comment author: prase 03 July 2009 09:38:43AM *  0 points [-]

Assuming that "believe" in your usage means "p(God exists)>0.5" in my usage, and similarly "disbelieve"="p<0.5", this would mean that weak atheists are at exact p=0.5, which is a zero measure set. Such people don't exist.

Seriously, it is difficult to imagine an opinion which can be reversed by literally any evidence against, no matter how weak.