"A Thiest" Or "Athiest"

Today's question is one that I promised a student last night I would answer today. It's " My friend is an athiest. What does that mean? What does he believe?" This is a good question. Jr. High is when people start to think about what they actually believe about God and about life. We will have friends who are athiests. I actually have a friend who considers himself agnostic. It's good to understand the term "Athiesm", but it's also good to understand the words "Thiesm" and "Agnosticism" as well, because they are all connected and everyone is one of them.

Everyone, actually, technically, is either a "Thiest" (thiesm) or an "Athiest" (athiesm). Athiesm is a lack of belief in God. Some completely deny the existance of God, others, just don't believe in a god. Thiesm is the opposite, it is the belief in a god, doesn't matter what god, just a god. I don't believe there really is a middle ground; you either believe in a god, or you don't. But some people think there is a middle ground, they have no idea whether God exists or not. They call themselves agnostic.

Agnostic, when broken down means "without knowledge" or "unknowable". Agnostic's say that no one can know for sure whether God exists. For instance, my friend, when asked, says, "I doen't know whether god exists or not, but probably not." They tend to think there is no way to know for sure God exists, but they are open to the possibility.

To answer the question, an athiest is someone who does NOT believe in a god; a thiest is someone who does believe in a god; and an agnostic, has no idea, but they're open to the possibility. As Christians we are all thiests, we believe a god does exists, and we believe He is the one true God, Yahwah, the Creator of the universe, the great I AM, the King of Kings and Lord of lords.