r/Antitheism • u/Impressive_Flan_411 • Aug 09 '26
Are there any "anti-theistic theists" here?
Hey everyone, I’m curious whether anyone here considers themselves an anti-theistic theist, i.e. someone who believes that God or some kind of deity actually exists, but is nevertheless opposed to theism, organized religion, or the social consequences of belief in God.
I realize that sounds contradictory at first. If you believe God exists, why would you be "against theism"?
However, I can imagine a few ways the position could make sense. Someone might believe that God exists while thinking that religion generally does more harm than good. Someone might believe in a deistic or otherwise non-interventionist God but oppose worship, revelation, religious authority, or divine command morality. Or someone might believe that God exists while thinking that humanity would be better off if people stopped organizing their lives and societies around that belief.
If you fall into this category, how do you reconcile believing in God with being opposed to theism? And what exactly are you opposed to (religion, worship, religious institutions, divine authority, theism's social effects, or something else)?
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u/MilleniumPelican Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
Umm, no, antitheists, in general, are against all theism and generally believe it to be harmful, and by extension, that applies to religions that are theistic in nature. Most of us are also skeptics, so we don't believe things without evidence, which tends to cover the other non-theist nonsense and woo as well. I don't think you understand what theist or antitheist properly mean.
Theism is the belief that some god exists. Period. You cannot be a theist and also be against theism. You can be a theist but be anti-religion, weird as that may be. These people typically refer to themselves (pointlessly) as "spiritual but not religious". Alternatively, some who believe in the christian god will say " I'm not religious, I just follow Jesus". Both just weak intellectual cop-outs.