True. It doesn't mean anything, actually (in that regard).
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What do people think "atheist" means?
- Thread starter ArtieE
- Start date
chinu
chinu
leibowde84
Veteran Member
"May" is a verb used to express a possibility. I used it because it is possible that God exists, but it is also possible that God does not exist. I, personally, BELIEVE that God exists, as I am a Christian. But, I also recognize the possibility that I might be wrong. That is why I used the word "may".
What is "that," that may possibly exist?
leibowde84
Veteran Member
The God of the Bible.
Why that "that"? I mean, after all, you were engaging in discourse with Chinu.
leibowde84
Veteran Member
I would think he would explain that.
leibowde84
Veteran Member
Also, in English, it seems that the word "God" refers to the Abrahamic God.
ThePainefulTruth
Romantic-Cynic
It means a belief that there is no God; a belief which is either not set (agnostic/soft), or certainty is claimed.
chinu
chinu
BELIEVE is not equal to SURE,
Not only you, everybody BELIEVE,
Some BELIEVE 99%
Some BELIEVE 50%
Some BELIEVE 1%
Whereas 100%-BELIEVE is equal to SURE ( Thereafter no need to use the word BELIEVE )
And there's no one with 0% BELIEVE on this earth.
Hope you understood my point, now, do you ?
I think Chinu 'believes' this....
no-one not even zero percent
the big naught, zip...nada.
maybe a little spritzh on there !
one of a gods pinky toenails,
wondrous am I, who cuts them,
and where do they all go !
Just a little above zero ?
silliness...silliness
~
'mud
no-one not even zero percent
the big naught, zip...nada.
maybe a little spritzh on there !
one of a gods pinky toenails,
wondrous am I, who cuts them,
and where do they all go !
Just a little above zero ?
silliness...silliness
~
'mud
Desert Snake
Veteran Member
Atheist should technically mean no evidence of theism, in any form. /Thus the person takes the position of atheism lol. If the person has any doubt, then they are no longer an atheist, they are a beginner theist.
I don't expect that he can read your mind. Hence, I'm asking you.
leibowde84
Veteran Member
There are levels of belief, but there are plenty of strong atheists whobhave 0% belief in God and explicitly state this. So, it seems that you must be wrong.
Often, yes. Do you have that expectation of everyone who uses it, that they use the same English you do, with your cultural biases, local vernaculars, and personal preferences built in--as English is for all of us who use it? Rhetorical question: I expect not. But nevertheless, you do use the word with the intention of being understood, not just in what you say but in what the other person will hear.
Bear with me. We speak in pictures. We each "draw" a picture of the world when we speak, with the words we choose and the grammar that structures them. That picture reflects the inner picture composed of thought, and specifically beliefs that we hold about the world, that we each have about the world. It's composed only of thought and beliefs--it is not composed of not-thought and not-beliefs. And every word we have, own and use comes from that vocabularic pool, and nowhere else. So, when you (each of us) use words with the intention of being understood, it carries with it, in the sense of being informed by it, a piece of that picture, a piece of thought/belief, a "that," and the expectation that that piece is in some way going to be understood.
It's not necessary that what we are talking about be something real. We're just throwing pictures at each other, but pictures informed of our inner thought and beliefs. Regardless of that what we refer to exists, our referents are not lacking in something believed about them ("it is," or "it isn't," or "dunno about that," all to varying degrees).
And knowledge is a justified and true belief.
leibowde84
Veteran Member
I agree. There are no absolutes in this reality. Thus, all knowledge/fact can be boiled down to strongly held and verified beliefs.
McBell
Unbound
What do you call people who merely lack a belief in a god?
ThePainefulTruth
Romantic-Cynic
Lacking a belief in God is saying you have no belief or that you aren't a theist--that's all. It still contradicts those who do believe in God no matter how you try to cage it or play with words to rephrase it. If you don't believe the issue of the existence of God is relevant, that's something else entirely. You'd be a materialist or a nihilist. And if you can't say whether God exists or not, you're an agnostic.
I thought atheists had given up attempting to use that phrase that was the result of someone's slight-of-hand over 20 years ago. It became embarrassingly transparent even to neophyte atheists and it had stopped being used in Phil. 101--and the rest couldn't keep it straight if they lacked belief in God or disbelieved in God or didn't believe in God, what the differences were, and which they were supposed to parrot. Sometimes poetic justice does exist.