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Originally Posted by onetwo_threefour

Yeah, I 've heard all that before, but then the question is, what differentiates an agnostic from a 'weak atheist'.

A weak atheist is open to the possibility, while an agnostic speaks to the ability to know. While a weak atheist says there's no evidence, an agnostic would say the entire thing is inherently unknowable. There can be both agnostic theists and agnostic atheists.

I think I've heard people talk about strong and weak agnostics as well though, where my example above would be a strong agnostic and a weak agnostic would be similar to a weak atheist.

I don't know if you've read the God Delusion, but as far as I'm concerned Dawkins way overstates the level of confidence in the "no God' evidence as far as I'm concerned.

And yes I recognize that it is impossible to 'disprove' the existence of God on scientific terms, that is exactly why I say to be a true atheist who asserts that there is no God, you must be willing to believe without conclusive evidence.

Not necessarily, it depends what you mean by "God". If you mean a God, some supernatural being with unspecified qualities, sure. If you mean a specific God though, such as Zeus, Allah, or the God of the Bible, then I don't agree.

A strong atheist probably wouldn't say there's no God at all, but would say there's sufficient contrary evidence to conclude the nonexistence of the God of the Bible. 100% proof, of course not, science doesn't deal with proofs, it deals with evidence.

I strongly doubt the existence of God and see no conditions requiring the existence of God for the universe to exist, but acknowledge that the matter is beyond scientific proof, and will simply operate as though there is no supernatural agency directing life or responsible for the human condition.

I leave the possibility of such an agency existing open, but find the question intellectually uninteresting as there is no effective way of testing the hypothesis. (other than killing yourself, which seems rather extreme given the alternatives)

Even a strong atheist would likely agree with that view I think.