Anyone who has debated any atheist would most definitely have come across this statement:
Atheism is not a belief, it is merely not affirming the proposition that, “there is a god/gods.”
But theism is a belief, so you need to prove it.
The trick here is that atheism wants to get defined minimally, while theism gets defined asymmetrically. Atheism is reduced to a bare response to one proposition, while theism is loaded with maximal burden.
No.
If you want to define atheism minimally, then theism must also be defined minimally:
Theism is not a belief, it is merely affirming the proposition that, “there is a god/gods.”
You cannot define atheism as a response to a singular proposition, then define theism as a complete metaphysical worldview.
No, either atheism is treated minimally with no burden of proof and theism also gets treated minimally with no burden of proof. Or atheism is treated as broad label for a set of atheistic worldviews and theism is treated as a broad label for a set of theistic worldviews be it Christianity, Islam, Hinduism etc.
Otherwise it’s just special pleading. So spare me the pedantic lectures about what atheism is and is not.
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