I would like to apologize in advance for potential ambiguity in my statements as I am not a native English speaker. And my intention is not to attack or promote any religious or philosophical view.
I was raised in an atheist family in a predominantly Muslim country. My father has always tried to find some truth in religious scripts, but failed to overcome his rationality. He still does his best to believe in a creator, probably out of his fear of death or out of his need to attach a grand meaning to life. My mother is less inquisitve; she doesn't know anything about the holy books (that's how we call the Bible, Qoran and Torah in my country) and doesn't care to find out more about them. If her parents had been religious, she would have probably been as dismissal as she is now, but on the opposite side of the debate. Likewise, most of my friends and distant relatives have been atheists or believed or tried to believe in a greater being without practicing any religion. Having such an environment encouraged me to freely belabor in my mind concepts such as creation, reality and existence since I was a little child. This post's purpose is to summarize the ideas I have accumulated throughout the years in a succinct and methodological fashion.
I claim all the belief systems observed in our world can be classified into three main categories: theism, atheism, and aterraism (a term I coined since I couldn't find a suitable word for it in any literature). Furthermore, I contend that in terms of truth, they are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive, which has three implications:
- The sum of the probabilities of each of these belief systems being true is 100%.
- None of these belief systems intersect with each other in any way.
- Each and every belief and religion that had been observed in the past, that are being observed in the present and that will be observed in the future fall under one of the three major categories listed; these categories are sufficient to cover all the past, present and future beliefs and religions.
I will start by briefly explaining what I understand by these terms since they are abstact and subject to multiple interpretations.
- Theism: Belief in a single god or multiple gods, doesn't necessarily have to be masculine and omnipotent as portrayed by Abrahamic religions. The theory of evolution and Big Bang theory do not contradict with theistic belief as the creator or creators can create existence and life in many different ways.
- Atheism: Belief in the absence of a god. The religions are man-made and no holy being partook in creation. The cosmos doesn't have to be a product of Big Bang and life on Earth didn't necessarily flourish as a result of evolution.
- Aterraism: Belief in non-existence. The existence or absence of God is not real. Nothing is real. Reality and existence cannot be proven just as how different people see and interpret the colors in the same way cannot be proven. Even this post is not real.
A. Theism
All religions and beliefs that involve a supernatural being which had a small or a large role in creation fall under this category. Even the belief of our cosmos being the project of an alien student falls under this category; our alien creator might not be as supernatural and omnipotent as the God of Abrahamic religions, but that alien creator itself is a creation of another being. There can be infinite amount of iterations of creators. In the case of Abrahamic religions, there is only one iteration: the God was not born or created and He has always existed; the creation and life on earth are his work.
Theism doesn't necessarily have to oppose the findings of modern science. It doesn't imply the rejection of Big Bang theory and the theory of evolution. It is not farfetched to think that a person who believes in an omnipotent God can say "the God created the singularity defined in Big Bang theory in six days and rested on the seventh, and then He created protein molecules on earth and evolution carried out the rest." I do not want to be misunderstood here. I am not mocking theistic beliefs in any way. What I intend to point out is that as long as someone believes in the existence of such a grand being, he doesn't have a hard time to reconcile developments in science with his long-held beliefs.
To sum up, attributing at least some part of creation to a grand, supernatural being is enough to be regarded as theism. Holding such a belief and considering Big Bang and evolution to be true is neither hypocrisy nor contradictory.
B. Atheism
In atheistic beliefs, the concept of iteration of creation introduced under the subtitle theism is 0. There is no creation and no creator; and following from this, there is no message from the creator to its creations. And just as theistic beliefs don't necessarily have to oppose modern science's findings, atheistic beliefs don't have to adopt most commonly held theories. An atheist might place theories of evolution and Big Bang in the center of his belief, or he might elect to disregard them completely and come up with his own hypothesis or defer to other theories that are not as commonly acknowledged as the ones mentioned. An atheist might dismiss concepts such as singularity, expansion of space, etc., and instead hold the view that the space has always existed, in a static or a dynamic way, and that time has no beginning or an end.
In short, all beliefs with an iteration of creation of 0 is atheistic, regardless of how well they embrace modern scientific theories.
C. Aterraism
Unlike the previous two categories, aterraism is homogeneous. Nothing exists. This world and cosmos do not exist. Even the concept of aterraism doesn't exist. I, writing this post, do not exist, and you, reading this post and thinking of me as original, or banal, or clever, or idiot, do not exist. Therefore, this is a term that denies its own existence. Not much can be said about this since this being true would create some sort of paradox, which itself would not be real.
Summary
Every single belief system in the past, present and future belongs to one of these three distinct categories: theism, atheism, and aterraism; there is no need to introduce another category. The sum of probabilities for each of these categories being true is 100%. The question is: Is there any category that would not give you goosebumps if it is proven to be true without any doubts?
There is no other possibility.