It's just that I have never seen that definition anywhere because what you added is completely redundant. Of course a person who believes must be capable of belief so why did you put that in?
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"Humans are born as atheists"
- Thread starter 1137
- Start date
I don't remember any such thing happening in the '80s.
I was an atheist back in the '50s, & haven't seen any re-definition of the word.
What do you mean?
PackJason
I make up facts.
Why would I explain when he already did? Stop being lazy and re-read what he wrote.
- 1 : an inference that does not follow from the premises; specifically : a fallacy resulting from a simple conversion of a universal affirmative proposition or from the transposition of a condition and its consequent
- 2 : a statement (as a response) that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said
Incorrectly.
I did ... and I can comprehend it without much effort. I'm not a dullard, you see.
Thief
Rogue Theologian
@LuisDantas
if you lump your post under honesty.....
then nothing more you post can be taken at face value
from now on you will need to qualify ALL statements so the rest of us can be sure....
you aren't knee kerking
if you lump your post under honesty.....
then nothing more you post can be taken at face value
from now on you will need to qualify ALL statements so the rest of us can be sure....
you aren't knee kerking
Thief
Rogue Theologian
once the noun takes hold in the head.....
that person will assimilate or disassociate.
go with it....or go without
PackJason
I make up facts.
Yeah, he made that up. The word "atheist" means the same thing today as it did in the mid 1700's when people accused Thomas Paine of being an atheist.
Augustus
…
It seems to be the time where people started to promote the 'lack of belief' definition and seek to redefine atheism as a non-belief, non-position, nothingness because it is simply 'without theism', rather than the 'without god -ism' that is very much something.
I'd be open to reconsidering this opinion if anyone can find the 'lack of belief' definition in common usage prior to this period.
Wikipedia says it comes from the Greek atheos meaning "without god(s)". What is the Greek word for "believing there are no gods"?
Augustus
…
You should inform the 'lack of belief' crowd that they are wrong then.
PackJason
I make up facts.
This is exactly right. The "A" in atheist means literally "without" in Greek.
If one is without something, one lacks that thing. It's just that simple.
PackJason
I make up facts.
Why would I tell people who are correct that they are wrong?
I'll leave that to the intellectually dishonest on this board.
Thief
Rogue Theologian
and you can be without God.....
just turn your back and make denial
PackJason
I make up facts.
I stopped believing in Zeus a long time ago.
Thief
Rogue Theologian
cool....
I have a 1961 Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (won in a spelling bee).
Atheism.....
1) Disbelief in or denial of the existence of a supreme being, distinguished from agnosticism & opposed to theism
2) Godless
I never stopped believing in Zeus.
Augustus
…
You said that the word means the same today as it did in 1700, if this is true then it didn't mean 'lack of belief'. This is a fact.
You are so convinced you are right because you really don't know very much. Sometimes you see others as 'intellectually dishonest' simply because you yourself are intellectually inadequate.
From The Presumption of Athiesm (1984) by Anthony Flew:
The word 'atheism', however, has in this contention to be construed unusually. Whereas nowadays the usual meaning of 'atheist' in English is 'someone who asserts that there is no such being as God', I want the word to be understood not positively but negatively. I want the originally Greek prefix 'a' to be read in the same way in 'atheist' as it customarily is read in such other Greco-English words as 'amoral', 'atypical', and 'asymmetrical'. In this interpretation an atheist becomes: not someone who positively asserts the non-existence of God; but someone who is simply not a theist. Let us, for future ready reference, introduce the labels 'positive atheist' for the former and 'negative atheist' for the latter.
The introduction of this new interpretation of the word 'atheism' may appear to be a piece of perverse Humpty-Dumptyism, going arbitrarily against established common usage. 'Whyever', it could be asked, 'don't you make it not the presumption of atheism but the presumption of agnosticism?' It is too soon to attempt a full answer to this challenge and this suggestion. My justification for introducing the notion of negative atheism will be found in the whole development of the present chapter. Then in Chapter Two I intend to argue for a return to the original usage of the word 'agnosticism', as first introduced by Thomas Henry Huxley. In the meantime it should be sufficient to point out that, following the present degenerate usage, an agnostic is one who, having entertained the proposition that God exists, now claims not to know either that it is or that it is not true. To be in this ordinary sense an agnostic you have already to have conceded that there is, and that you have, a legitimate concept of God; such that, whether or not this concept does in fact have application, it theoretically could. But the atheist in my peculiar interpretation, unlike the atheist in the usual sense, has not as yet and as such conceded even this.
Anyway, take it or leave it.
Augustus
…
That is the traditional definition, not the lack/absence of belief one.
When you use incomplete sentences and the person responding says, "Use whole sentences," it usually means you've given them nothing to work with. In this case your reply.
I don't speak Greek, so I don't know.