Reply to Re: Religion
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September 3rd 2009, 07:01 PM
SkeleTony
Metatarsal:
You wrote(sorry...do not know if these forums have a 'quote' function):
"A rather unexpected post, and a rather off-topic one too actually."
To which I respond:
The OP asked if anyone had been offended by God and several people then chimed in with their proclamations of theism or atheism and my post was in direct response to those who had erroneously equated "atheism" with "not religious".
You continued:
"As to your reasoning, I always thought that religions without gods (say Buddhism) where called non-theistic and that atheism is the rejection of religions in general."
My response:
You would be wrong on that count. "Nontheism"/"non-theistic" is a synonym for "atheism"/"atheistic" and atheism quite literally means "without gods". The term for being without religion is 'areligious'. The prefix 'a' in both cases means "without".
[quote]Though one may argue that atheism is a religion in itself... (I have to say that I agree with that evaluation a lot of the time.)[/quote]
Not successfully they cannot. NO ONE can make that argument because it does not exist and leads to absurdities which even YOU would not grant. For example, is THEISM "a religion"? Of course it is not. Like "atheism" theism only pertains to belief in gods, regardless of religion or lack thereof.
[quote]Most people think you can still believe in the supernatural when you're an atheist.[/quote]
You can. I myself do not because I am a critical atheist and skeptic but there is nothing preventing an atheist who is NOT a skeptic from believing in pixies, the tooth fairy or ghosts or what have you.
You continued with with:
"So I guess the borders between an atheist and an non-theist can be very vague.[/quote]
Nonexistent actually. IIRC the term "nontheist" was first proposed by Dr. Michael Shermer(an atheist and founder of the Skeptics Society) as an alternative to "atheist" so that non-believers would not have to deal with as much prejudice and negative baggage associated with the term "atheist".
Still I feel I have to make a distinction between the two...
You wrote(sorry...do not know if these forums have a 'quote' function):
"A rather unexpected post, and a rather off-topic one too actually."
To which I respond:
The OP asked if anyone had been offended by God and several people then chimed in with their proclamations of theism or atheism and my post was in direct response to those who had erroneously equated "atheism" with "not religious".
You continued:
"As to your reasoning, I always thought that religions without gods (say Buddhism) where called non-theistic and that atheism is the rejection of religions in general."
My response:
You would be wrong on that count. "Nontheism"/"non-theistic" is a synonym for "atheism"/"atheistic" and atheism quite literally means "without gods". The term for being without religion is 'areligious'. The prefix 'a' in both cases means "without".
[quote]Though one may argue that atheism is a religion in itself... (I have to say that I agree with that evaluation a lot of the time.)[/quote]
Not successfully they cannot. NO ONE can make that argument because it does not exist and leads to absurdities which even YOU would not grant. For example, is THEISM "a religion"? Of course it is not. Like "atheism" theism only pertains to belief in gods, regardless of religion or lack thereof.
[quote]Most people think you can still believe in the supernatural when you're an atheist.[/quote]
You can. I myself do not because I am a critical atheist and skeptic but there is nothing preventing an atheist who is NOT a skeptic from believing in pixies, the tooth fairy or ghosts or what have you.
You continued with with:
"So I guess the borders between an atheist and an non-theist can be very vague.[/quote]
Nonexistent actually. IIRC the term "nontheist" was first proposed by Dr. Michael Shermer(an atheist and founder of the Skeptics Society) as an alternative to "atheist" so that non-believers would not have to deal with as much prejudice and negative baggage associated with the term "atheist".
Still I feel I have to make a distinction between the two...
