Atheism is a belief system.

[Memories]

I have badly worded this, just forget about ''system'' Atheism is a belief.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I have badly worded this, just forget about ''system'' Atheism is a belief.

True. Except for when it isn't, of course.

 

[Memories]

True. Except for when it isn't, of course.

In wich cases?

 

[gnomon]

Sorry pet peeve of mine but,

The traditional definition of the encyclopaedia of philosophy says that an atheist is a person who maintains that there is no God; you are confounding atheism with agnosticicism. The two are different.

An agnostic does not have a belief in God but he does not deny God's exists.

I hope this makes things clear.

Never heard of "the traditional definition of the encyclopaedia of philosophy". The Stanford Encyclopedia defines atheism as a negation of theism or the denial of the existence of God. Then it proceeds to ramble on about the difficulties with the concepts of belief.

The OED maintains a meaning of disbelief, or denial of, the existence of God. The primary difference in the OED is that a proclaimed atheist is stating they do not believe in God. The agnostic says....don't know. What an incredibly insightful term.

Historically, atheos, without gods, was implied to anyone outside the belief system, whether they believed in Gods or not, of the dominant culture. So, traditionally, your argument is invalid.

One cannot ignore the broad meaning of the term atheist. I don't know how many times on this forum I've stated. The broad definition is that atheism is without belief in god(s). That's it.

 

[gnomon]

I have badly worded this, just forget about ''system'' Atheism is a belief.

Belief in what?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

In wich cases?

The cases where it's an absence of belief. Like the vast majority of atheists I've known.

 

[dogsgod]

Sorry pet peeve of mine but,

The traditional definition of the encyclopaedia of philosophy says that an atheist is a person who maintains that there is no God; you are confounding atheism with agnosticicism. The two are different.

An agnostic does not have a belief in God but he does not deny God's exists.

I hope this makes things clear.

What God?

 

[Memories]

The cases where it's an absence of belief. Like the vast majority of atheists I've known.

More definitions.

1. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
2. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.

''The abscence of belief in God'' Does not match the common given definitions of atheism. therefore this is not atheism but somehting else, your friends were probably agnostic.

You would need to be a rock or some inanimated object or simply have no knowledge of what God is to simply have an ''abscence of belief''

Still this is not atheism.

 

[xkatz]

Believing is disbelieving I guess you could say.

 

[Memories]

Main Entry: athe·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈā-thē-ˌi-zəm\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French athéisme, from athée atheist, from Greek atheos godless, from a- + theos god
Date: 1546
2 a : a disbelief in the existence of deity b : the doctrine that there is no deity

One cannot ignore the broad meaning of the term atheist. I don't know how many times on this forum I've stated. The broad definition is that atheism is without belief in god(s). That's it.

Then by all means go tell the folks at websters and from many other places that they are wrong, they will be happy to find out they could not have been more wrong all along!

The broad definition is that atheism is without belief in god(s).

This is not the Broad definition... Its your own definition. then again whatever floats your boat, but this is NOT a broad definition.

SILLY ME FOR POINTING OUT CORRECT DEFINITIONS.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

More definitions.

1. Disbeliefin or denial of the existence of God or gods.
2. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.

''The abscence of belief in God'' Does not match the common given definitions of atheism. therefore this is not atheism but somehting else, your friends were probably agnostic.

You would need to be a rock or some inanimated object or simply have no knowledge of what God is to simply have an ''abscence of belief''

Still this is not atheism.

Since you're all about definitions, here's one for you:

Disbelieve: to have no belief in; refuse or reject belief in:

So, as you can see, "to have no belief in the existence of god or gods," a common definition of atheism, matches "an absence of belief in god" exactly. If you're going to use definitions, you have to take them all into account, and not just cherry pick the ones which happen to coincide with your argument.

 

[freethinker44]

I think maybe this comes down to how each individual person defines belief. I don't really consider atheism a belief, because I don't "believe there is no god", I simply don't believe that theists claims are not true. It isn't really an active belief on my part, it is just a side affect of what I know to be true, and the belief in a god isn't compatable with what I know as truth.

Maybe it is all in the context of what the person is trying to say too. If I am engaged in a conversation about god or religion, then I will maintain the belief that there is no god, and I will argue it as if it were just like any other belief. But if the conversation had a different nature, then I wouldn't argue it as a belief, I would argue it within the context of whatever that conversation was.

 

[dogsgod]

You would need to be a rock or some inanimated object or simply have no knowledge of what God is to simply have an ''abscence of belief''

I don't have a clue as to what you mean by "God." Every theist has their own idea as to what their God consists of, so no, I have no knowledge of what God is. I don't define God, that is for theists to ponder, I simply have an absence of belief because I don't share in any God belief. That makes me an atheist.

 

[Memories]

Since you're all about definitions, here's one for you:

Disbelieve: to have no belief in; refuse or reject belief in.

One could say to disbelieve?

but not lack of a belief,

this would necessarly imply that the person has no knowledge of God, or would apply to innanimated objects, but does not apply to atheism as by its commonly accepted definition,

Silly me for cherry picking these from the webster dictionnary and not from some other source you have yet to cite that comes up with a compatible definition to your wild claims.

 

[Baydwin]

Atheism isn't a belief system. It has no doctrine, no dogma, no sacred texts, no teachings and no practices.

Do you believe in a deity? No.

The entirety of atheistic thought is summed up in that little two letter word. There is nothing more nor less to atheism than a negative response to the question above.

There are no adherents of atheism, only people who are atheistic. People who are atheistic may have personal philosophies or sets of beliefs, but they are nothing to do with atheism, those beliefs are in addition to their atheism.

There are ex-theists and anti-theists who may try to disprove the existence of deities to their believers, but it's not because they are atheist that they do so, these activities are in addition to their atheism.

To people who insist that atheism is a belief system, I ask you, how do you practice your disbelief in the Daoine Sidhe?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

One could say to disbelieve?

but not lack of a belief,

this would necessarly imply that the person has no knowledge of God, or would apply to innanimated objects, but does not apply to atheism as by its commonly accepted definition,

Silly me for cherry picking these from the webster dictionnary and not from some other source you have yet to cite that comes up with a compatible definition to your wild claims.

"To have no belief in" is an absence of belief. Yes, silly you for continuing to cherry pick only definitions from only dictionaries which coincide with your argument. My source is dictionary.com, as always.

 

[Memories]

"To have no belief in" is an absence of belief. Yes, silly you for continuing to cherry pick only definitions from only dictionaries which coincide with your argument. My source is dictionary,com, as always.

Oh look, I went on your site and here is what I found.

a⋅the⋅ism

1.the doctrine or belief that there is no God.

2.disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

You must have missed that one. Or mabey we are not talking about the same dictionary.com

Its very simple, the definition of atheism is what I have stated and what is commonly accepted, and what you say is not. its all black n white really.

Hope this helps.

 

[Memories]

funny stuff...

Why not call this atotalstrangerism?

would make more sense.

All the best.

 

[Memories]

To people who insist that atheism is a belief system, I ask you, how do you practice your disbelief in the Daoine Sidhe?

I have no idea who that is. Only once I get to know the caracteristics of said diety can I only make up my mind. Then I will be able to say that I do not believe in Daoine Sidhe.

I have a counter question for you, do you know who the judeo- christian God is? if you say never heard of him, ITS NOT ATHEISM. Is that so hard to understand?

Do you believe in a deity? No.

This implies you know what dietys are all about '' omnipotent , omnibenevolent'' you have some knowledge about them. therefore it is disbelieving.

''Do you believe in a deity? No'' : I do not believe in God.

Its all logical. and disbelief in God is what atheism is about,because for lack of belief their would need to be lack of knowledge.

 

[gnomon]

Main Entry: athe·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈā-thē-ˌi-zəm\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French athéisme, from athée atheist, from Greek atheos godless, from a- + theos god
Date: 1546
2 a : a disbelief in the existence of deity b : the doctrine that there is no deity



Then by all means go tell the folks at websters and from many other places that they are wrong, they will be happy to find out they could not have been more wrong all along! Disbelief is absence, opposite, deprive or remove.

Atheism: Disbelief in God. Ergo, absence of belief in god(s); opposite the belief, or non-belief, in god(s); deprive of belief? (makes no sense) or removal of belief? (makes no sense).



This is not the Broad definition... Its your own definition. then again whatever floats your boat, but this is NOT a broad definition.

SILLY ME FOR POINTING OUT CORRECT DEFINITIONS.

Theism, a belief in god(s).

Prefixes:
poly - more than one or many
a - without;lack of
hence: 1) a-bacterial: free of bacteria
2) a-baptism: the absence of baptism
3) a-biosis: devoid of life
4) a-mnesia: loss of memory (mnesia is a suffix meaning memory)
5) anonchyia: lack of fingernails

There are thousands of terms with the prefix a- meaning lack of; without or loss of
pan - all;everything;involving all
panen - well I'll leave this one to others

Using the prefix a- in atheism to denote denial, where the term does not apply elsewhere, is just unintelligible.

Still waiting for this monumental traditional encyclopedia of philosophy. In the meantime I will go bother some of the theists by calling them atheists. After all, many Christians are "against" other Gods. I'm sure they will love me using your narrow terminology.

edit: Of course, the equivocation game gets really old.