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I don't think there is any difference between atheism and accepting that God exists. wait, I'll explain:

It is not that God just exists, is it? It is about what properties such a creator has. Religions have vastly differing opinions about what the creator wants, intents for us, does, likes, dislikes, etc...

My question is: From a philosophical point of view, how can one argue for the endowment of the creator with properties other than existence? What properties would He/She have? For example, why does the creator care about his creations?

BlowMaMind
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    Possible duplicate: What is God for religious people? – Philip Klöcking Apr 18 '18 at 12:42
  • Well, belief in God is not essentially theism. Disbelief is atheism, though. But there are other beliefs between atheism and theism called nontheism. – rus9384 Apr 18 '18 at 17:30
  • "Anything that anybody might attribute to God" is too broad to be answerable in a couple of paragraphs. It would be better to ask specific questions about particular properties and how they could be argued for. For an example, see e.g. https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/q/46891/2953. –  Apr 18 '18 at 18:14

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Theism is faith-based doctrine, atheism is rejection of theism

Some definitions...

  • Faith: belief without evidence to validate the belief
  • God: a person with a will, that and that will cannot be disputed by humans

Theism is not just the belief that a god of some kind exists, because that is deism. Theism goes further than deism, as described by Christopher Hitchens:

[You] may not wish to abandon the idea that there must be some sort of first or proximate cause or prime mover of the known and observable world and universe.

But even if you can get yourself to that position […] all your work is still ahead of you. To go from being a deist to a theist — in other words to someone who says: God cares about you; knows who you are; minds what you do; answers your prayers; cares which bits of your penis or clitoris you saw away or have sawn away for you; minds who you go to bed with and in what way; minds what holy days you observe; minds what you eat; minds what positions you use for pleasure — all your work is still ahead of you, and lots of luck. Because there is nobody, there's nobody, even Aquinas had to give it up, there's no one who can move from the first position to the second

So in short:

Theism is faith-based (the-) doctrine (-ism).

Atheism is therefore rejection of faith-based doctrine. In a nutshell, this is how the conversation goes:

Theist: I know what the higher, divine will is, and you would do best to follow it

Atheist: No, I do not think so. I reject that notion of yours.

So the qualities of the god does not actually matter. The god in question may be the Abrahamic god, any of the Hindu gods, or even a human god like Emperor Hirohito. What matters is the following:

  1. The believers claim that the god-person's will is known, at least to them
  2. The believers claim that the god-person's will is indisputable

Atheism is simply to disagree with the latter or both of the points above. Therefore: no, it is not true to say that atheism is the same as theism.

And to finally answer your question: the only common qualities that gods of various religionms has is that

  • They are a person/persons
  • They have a will/a plan
  • That will is indisputable by humans
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MichaelK
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  • Hmmm, if I believe my will is indisputable (and of course I know it) am I a theist? – rus9384 Apr 18 '18 at 23:49
  • Sorry, my English is not that good: when you say indisputable, do you mean "cannot be changed"? – BlowMaMind Apr 19 '18 at 02:47
  • @rus9384 In regarfs to your own little pocket of things that you and only you can affect, yes. – MichaelK Apr 19 '18 at 03:46
  • @BlowMaMind It means: cannot even be brought up for discussion. – MichaelK Apr 19 '18 at 03:48
  • The funny part is that disputing someone's will can affect it. Thus it's always safe not to constrain yourself by such rules. – rus9384 Apr 19 '18 at 05:01
  • @rus9384 Well the quality of a god is that even bringing the subject up for discussion cannot affect the god. – MichaelK Apr 19 '18 at 05:05
  • Well, that rejects the idea of non-determinism. And free will. Logical paradox here. – rus9384 Apr 19 '18 at 07:36
  • @rus9384 Not really. I did not say that this will forces subjects of the will to act according to it; which necessitates really convoluted explanations like "but god love us so much he gave us free will and only punishes us after the deed". But the will is there and it is not negotiable. I — of course — maintain that actions performed under duress is not performed under free will, which nullifies that piece of nonsense instantly. – MichaelK Apr 19 '18 at 07:39