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Frank Segro

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Abolishing the use of the term Atheism.

We all know that the term "atheist" means without god. However, as an atheist I often find it annoying when people talk about it as a belief system. Lack of belief does not constitute belief in anything else. No one would call me an a-paleontologist simply because I'm not one. Simultaneous to being an atheist I may be a rational empiricist or follow some other set of beliefs. I believe that we should stop using convenient designators such as atheism when we "classify" ourselves to others or are classified by them, because there is simply nothing behind it.


Thoughts?

Topics: atheism future language religion
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    Fred Lanisake

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    Nov 8 2011: Well, true lack of belief would be agnosticism. Atheism is the belief that there are no gods.
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      Krisztián Pintér 200+

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      TED Translator
      Nov 8 2011: it is your definition, but in fact there are many.
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        Fred Lanisake

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        Nov 8 2011: ...such as?
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          Frank Segro

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          Nov 8 2011: Herein lies the problem, were assigning words to non-existent belief systems. Atheism is not a belief system. As I mentioned earlier it is simply a lack of something. That's why I don't think that we should use it as a term. We don't describe people by what they are not.

          Also, the term has such a negative connotation, part based in it's etymological roots, part in its anthropological, that it becomes difficult to discuss viewpoints when your automatically targeted as something negative.


          Would you go on a dating website and write "I don’t have blond hair, I'm not 5’ 8’’ nor 5’ 6’’, rather than I'm 5’ 7”?
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          Krisztián Pintér 200+

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          TED Translator
          Nov 8 2011: tough call. lemme see. wikipedia, atheism article, first paragraph:

          "Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist."

          hm. that was easy, after all. do you know wikipedia? kinda cool stuff.
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        Fred Lanisake

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        Nov 8 2011: Definition 1 depends on definition 2, and definition 3 is inconsistent with the anatomy of the word. I'm familiar with wikipedia and what it takes to qualify as an author.

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