I agree that atheism holds dogmas. And most aggressively as modern history shows and am rather entertained by atheists' desperate attempts to mock religious thought while howling off into the sunset when pressed to articulate a universe devoid of final cause and purpose which many atheists incoherently assert. Atheism IS incoherence.

Atheism doesn't have a dogma nor does theism. Both are single positions on single issues. Of course, that doesn't prevent atheists and theists from having dogmas. Science doesn't have an agenda - but scientists certainly can and do.

I'll cop to a lot of dogmas - I just don't think that atheism or theism is one of them. But yes, gnostic atheists who believe in a god are inconsistent thus that cannot be a principle of truth.

To get to that dogma, you have to qualify the atheism as "Strong" or "Positive" atheism and it's thus no longer unspecified atheism. Someone who has theism as a position because, say, they believe everything William Shatner says? Their dogma isn't theism - their dogma is 'Believe what William Shatner says'. And whatever you talk about with this person? They believe what William Shatner says.

But the theism itself is not a dogma. Certain forms of atheism may be. Certain forms of atheism may be but the position itself? No.

Atheism doesn't actually have an authority to lay down a truth that can't be questioned.

A Dogma is "a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true."

Thus Atheism can be a dogma of the non-existence of deity based on the authority of Philosophy(not that I personally think the Atheist Philosophers have or can in principle succeed showing this to be the case).

Theism can be the dogma of the existence of some divinity based on the authority of philosophical reasoning (as a classic theist my bias here should be obvious except from very high altitudes).

"I collect stamps but I don't" is inconsistent thus it cannot be a principle of truth.

>But I agree with you that a single position on a single issue is not a dogma. So that is correct; theism isn't a dogma by my own standards.

I salute yer consistency but I would say just to clarify we might not be using the term "dogma" in the exact same way so there is some equivocation.

Anyway carry on and cheers.

"I collect stamps but I don't" is a dogma by that logic. No, it is simply an inconsistent position.

But I agree with you that a single position on a single issue is not a dogma. So that is correct; theism isn't a dogma by my own standards.

I wish I'd thought of putting it that way.

@tom_more:disqus

Atheism holds no dogmas? So I can be a Gnostic Atheist who also confesses the existence of the Divine Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit? I think not.....not without contradiction.

It seems Atheism must hold dogmas. The question then becomes are those dogmas true or not and how do you know?

Anyway here are 17 different types of Atheism listed on a well known Atheism Blog. Interesting stuff.

http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=6487

The term "Atheism" like the term "Theism" is a broad term and requires additional adjectives to describe the type of belief or non-belief you advocate & thus the doctrines and dogmas you hold for said belief or non-belief.

For example I am a Classic Theist which means I am not a Theistic Personalist or anthopomorphic theist.

You can say Atheism doesn't have dogmas but then you must say Theism doesn't either by yer own standards.

Weird, I've given you 3 years and you haven't managed to do so.

1) Asking you to cite your claim does not compel me to be making the opposite claim
2)As for the scientism dogma....atheism is just the belief or disbelief in a God. That's got nothing to do with scientism. Atheists can hold dogmas, but atheism has none - it is a single position on a single issue.

there’s an easy solution:

Show up.

How would that convince you that God exists? First you need to know what attributes God would have if He existed, which you don't seem to know, and in addition the Holy Book says "faith is the evidence of things that appear not"