Theism, Atheism, Agnosticism

 
https://barryhisblog.blogspot.com/p/theism-atheism-agnosticism.html

There is much confusion and misunderstanding about the meaning of these words.

Hopefully, this will help straighten things out.

The definitions come from Oxford Languages, a dictionary used by Google.com which it accesses whenever you Google "Define {word}"

I add my comments below the definitions.

Definition of theism: belief in the existence of a god or gods, specifically of a creator who intervenes in the universe. "there are many different forms of theism"

Definition of atheism: disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods.

Definition of agnostic: a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God.

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Hopefully, there isn't much confusion or disagreement about what theism means, at least.

When it comes to atheism, some people try to insist that it means a positive assertion that there are no gods. This is a convenient straw-man version that suits people who wish to try to discredit atheism. The fact is that most atheists are agnostic atheists. This includes the "high priests" of atheism such as Richard Dawkins. The easiest way to grasp what atheism means is simply "not theism". An atheist is someone who is not a theist.

It is with the concept of agnosticism that people get mixed up. It is not about being unsure as to whether God or some other god(s) exist. The word was coined by Huxley, a close friend of Charles Darwin. He defined it. Gnosticism means holding the opinion that you have certain knowledge (about whatever). Agnosticism means not holding the opinion that you have certain knowledge about that whatever, and it is not possible to obtain such knowledge. This applies, particularly, to unfalsifiable notions - ideas that are impossible to test the veracity of. Thus you can have agnostic atheists and agnostic theists. Both acknowledge that they cannot demonstrate their positions with certainty, but they are of the opinion that their  positions are correct, or at least, exceedingly likely. And, of course you can also have all positions in between.

One exception to the agnostic position is the positive conclusion that the "God" of the creationists is a false god, because of the overwhelming amount of evidence that falsifies it.

"God" by the way, is capitalised, because it is a proper noun - the name of a particular god, like Zeus or Thor. When talking about gods in general, it is not a proper noun and is not capitalised, except of course, at the beginning of a sentence. 

Links:

The 'a' prefix https://barryhisblog.blogspot.com/p/a-prefix.html
Falsifiability https://barryhisblog.blogspot.com/p/falsifiability.html
Strawmanning atheism https://youtube.com/watch?v=fwASABbCRVY&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE