Woberts
The Perfumed Seneschal
I love how everyone's quoting a post by @Samantha Rinne, and I can't because it's gone. : /
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The True Definition Of Atheism?
- Thread starter Euronymous
- Start date
Took ya a lot more words to say the same.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
When push comes to shove, a theist is someone who believes in god(s).
Someone who believes the opposite/oposition of is an a- theist.
It expressing a statement and an opposition of that statement.
As far as strong and hard theism goes, it sounds like personal opinion. I am a hard atheist: an atheist who Knows god(s) do not exist.
Define the nature of what god(s) are to You personally not someone elses definition. Does it make sense to reality?
If you are in the middle of someone elses god(s) learn more about them from an objective view not influenced by others. Does it make sense? Is it your reality?
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
And to thousands like myself who wasnt indoctrinated, had positive influences with christisnity, and parents who dont believe in god???
Isnt that an off generalization of people you dont know?
There is no such thing as "the true" when it comes to definition. Definitions have origin, and evolve over time. However, the best definition is usually the one that makes the best logical sense to the person using it.
People have beliefs about the world based on their learning and how they think. The sum of a person's beliefs is called a worldview (literally, their 'view' of the world). Some people believe in 'god,' which means that 'god' is a part of their world. Some people don't believe in 'god,' which means 'god' is no part of their world. The former are theists, the latter atheists.
Atheism isn't just a response to monotheism.
What's the "opposite" of "belief in god(s)?"
Curious George
Veteran Member
Never said it was. Or perhaps you read my definition and realized by it that it would apply to any and all gods. This epiphany then led you to exclaim as you did that atheism is not just a response to monotheism.
You used the singular "god." I assumed the lack of a capital was a typo, since your grammar suggested you were using the term as a proper noun.
Come again? You seem to have a rich fantasy life.
stvdv
Veteran Member
I totally agree with @DavidT "Evangelizing [made me do] is 1 cause of atheism". And this is very easy to understand. Nobody likes to be told what to eat, or belief.
The funny thing is that Christians disagree with this. But also very easy to explain and proof. If you say "Jesus is the only way, also for you", you just tell the other "I am very arrogant, have no respect for your view, and I know what is best for you. And by the way Jesus is a ticket to heaven. The other option is Hell, so you are Hell-bound when you don't believe in Jesus".
Of course you become Atheist. And that is the best choice also. By the way no disrespect to Atheist and Atheism. I respect them far more than all judgemental Christians.
[and please Christians don't say "we don't make them do religion". If you tell someone you are Hell-bound if not chosing Jesus, you play the BlackMagic card.]
IMHO
Curious George
Veteran Member
Because a singular god would have to exist in order for multiple gods to exist.
Just giving you a hard time for a failed attempt at pedantry.
But you didn't say "a god exists" or "at least one god exists;" you said "god exists."
It's not pedantry to point out that to define atheism in terms of rejection, you need to do one of two things:
- limit it to the rejection of only one god, or at least a limited set of gods, or
- create a situation where actual atheists don't exist.
Neither of these options match how we use the term "atheist."
Didn't I say generally in my post?
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Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
As far as I can tell atheism is a lot of times "my family was crazy and made me do religion".'..
Just a general question no need to divert with questions-of-debate.
In this statement (since I cant find generally), isnt it off to generalize atheism and describe it as you did?
I dont fall under this definition of atheism. Not many atheist do. Do you think that in atheism, many people leave becaue or indictronation? Isnt that too off of a statement to consider that posibility?
Curious George
Veteran Member
It's like there is a hole and you keep digging. I am speaking about the rejection of all possible gods. Good point on the indefinite article.
So now that we've figured out what you meant: is "rejection of all possible gods" something a human being can actually do?
Has there ever been a human being in history who has even heard of all possible gods?
Curious George
Veteran Member
Has there ever been a person in history who has heard of all possible numbers?
Cool thing about sets is that they allow us to speak about entire groups. I understand you may believe that it is possible to have a number greater than 1 that is neither odd nor even, but I do not.
If you figured out a way to define the set "gods" so that someone could reject all of them as a group, I'd love to hear it. I've only ever been able to define the set "gods" in terms of a list of gods (edit: and therefore never been able to complete the whole set).
So how did you do it?
PureX
Veteran Member
Atheism is not about what you "believe in", or don't. It's a philosophical position on the existence or non-existence of gods. In this case, that they do not exist. How fervently you hold to this position is your own business, and does not define atheism as a category of human thought. It only defines you as weakly, moderately, or strongly atheistic.
Curious George
Veteran Member
We have had this discussion before now. The last time I gave my definition of a god was in Sunstones recent thread regarding the definition of a god. Feel free to quote me from there.
But this is the process.
Step 1: define one's concept of god.
Step 2: determine whether you believe that something within that category exists.
It is a relatively easy process.