Atheism And Postmodernism

Question 1

Negative atheism (weak atheism)

Answer 1

A position that asserts a lack of belief in any God or gods, without a positive denial of the existence of any God or gods.

Question 2

Positive atheism (strong atheism)

Answer 2

A position that asserts that there is no God; the explicit denial of all spiritual powers and supernatural beings.

Question 3

Agnosticism

Answer 3

A suspension of accepting or rejecting belief in God until there is sufficient data to reach a conclusion. Modern usage has the meaning of regarding God’s existence and his non-existence as equally possible.

Question 4

Verification principle

Answer 4

Developed by the school of logical positivism and claims the only criterion for whether or not a statement is meaningful is to know how that statement may be proved true or false.

Question 5

Moral absolute

Answer 5

Unchanging ethical truth.

Question 6

Religious belief

Answer 6

A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny. It usually relates to a belief in God or gods.

Question 7

Religious pluralism

Answer 7

Describes the world-view that one religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus recognises that some level of truth and value exists in at least some other religions.

Question 8

Postmodernism

Answer 8

A world-view that emphasises the existence of different world-views and concepts of reality, rather than one ‘correct or true’ one.

Question 9

Meta-narrative (or grand narrative)

Answer 9

An account of reality with an absolute claim to truth, Christians, for example, adopt the meta-narrative that an all-powerful all-loving God created the world and redeemed it through his son Jesus who saves people from their sins.

Question 10

Cultural constructs

Answer 10

The idea that the characteristics people attribute to such social categories as gender, religion and status of women are culturally defined.

Question 11

Atheism

Answer 11

The doctrine or belief that there is no God.