Explicit Atheism
Smith observes that some motivations for explicit atheism are rational and some not. Of the rational motivations, he says:
The most significant variety of atheism is explicit atheism of a philosophical nature. This atheism contends that the belief in god is irrational and should therefore be rejected. Since this version of explicit atheism rests on a criticism of theistic beliefs, it is best described as critical atheism.For Smith, explicit atheism is subdivided further into three groups:
- a) the view usually expressed by the statement "I do not believe in the existence of a god or supernatural being";
- b) the view usually expressed by the statement "God does not exist" or "the existence of God is impossible"; and
- c) the view which "refuses to discuss the existence of a god" because "the concept of a god is unintelligible" (p. 17).
Although, as mentioned above, Nagel opposes identifying what Smith calls "implicit atheism" as atheism, the two authors do very much agree on the three-part subdivision of "explicit atheism" above, though Nagel does not use the term "explicit".
Read more about this topic: Implicit And Explicit Atheism
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