The definition of an Athiest

[sherminator]

Hi guys can you help please? Waldo if you still come on here would love your take on this.

Am on a site which claims that Athiesm is now a religion and whilst I know this to be not true, Someone such as yourself(anyone else plese post as well!) can put it far more eloguently than me!

Thank you

[Answerprancer]

Atheism is as much a 'religeon' as not collecting stamps is a hobby. (someone had to say it !) I can sort of understand their point, anything with the suffix "ism" represents some sort of concrete belief system by my understanding, perhaps not a religeon, but definitely a 'thing'.

[Ellipsis]

You do not need a god for a religion. See for example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theravada

Religions without gods are called atheistic religions.

But atheism itself is not a religion. Drawing on another Wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion, you might define Religion most fundamentally as follows:

----------------
Religion is a cultural system that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and moral values. Religion differs from private belief in that it has a public aspect.
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That definition doesn't describe atheism.

[emmie]

perhaps someone else has pointed this out, if so sorry, but it's Atheist. I haven't read through all the responses as yet, but will when i can get over the idea that Atheism is any kind of religion. Being an atheist, i do not believe in any religion, so how do they work it out that it is one.

[jomifl]

^Because they want to..

[emmie]

it's my belief that there are no deities to worship, adhere to, so how is my opinion, belief in any way connected say with a catholic or protestant.

[chakka35]

woofgang, would you like to explain that gibberish, please.

Garmard, if my opinion is 'biased' then my opinion is also 'biased' about the existence of Santa Claus, fairies, magic wands, invisibilty potions, Cinderella's glass slipper, unicorns and a hundred other weird and unproven beliefs. What a hopelessly biased person I am.

LoftyLottie, if religious belief is not irrational and absurd, please explain why. To do that you will have to show that it is rational and perfectly sensible.

l

[LoftyLottie]

Clanad, I totally disagree with you. Noone on this earth can categorically say that there isn't a God, even you with all your wisdom. I don't believe there is a God. My intellectual abilities and powers of reasoning say there is not.

So if a person cannot prove that something is rational, then it is obviously must be irrational??

[LoftyLottie]

With apologies to Clanad, I meant Chakka. How on earth could I have confused such different characters.

[emmie]

the definition in my dictionary, if i don't believe, why would anyone say atheism is a religion

a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

[Old_Geezer]

How can it be labelled absurd ? There are things than can not be presently be explained, perhaps never will be, and it seems reasonable to assign a cause to those mysteries. One doesn't need an intelligence diety of some type as your cause in order to form a religion; but neither is it such a large step to hypothesise that. It's hardly absurd. Just a case of folk placing their faith in different explanations.

[Old_Geezer]

As I mentioned earlier em10, I suspect it is because one needs faith in there being no diety that some folk feel this qualifies it as a religion. I may be wrong but that would be my guess. But to be honest why should anyone care what it is labelled as ? It's the belief not the label one has that should be important to each.

[woofgang]

what gibberish chakka?

[chakka35]

woofgang, you say "any definition of a word is valid", which presumably means that if I define a silicone chip as an animal with five legs that is valid.

You continue " for a given value of a teapot". Er....

I'll answer the others tomorrow.

[mibn2cweus]

Answerprancer - "Atheism is as much a 'religeon' as not collecting stamps is a hobby. (someone had to say it !) I can sort of understand their point, anything with the suffix "ism" represents some sort of concrete belief system by my understanding, perhaps not a religeon, but definitely a 'thing'."

You correctly surmise the suffix '-ism' as implicating some form of belief . . . but then you ignore the prefix;

'a-' without
'-theism' belief in the existence of a god or gods

Deconstruction of the terms is not to be done arbitrarily but with consideration to how the term is intentionally constructed to convey a particular meaning. Similarly, in this context, 'a-ism' would not refer to someone who worships 'a' (although I'm sure some people do) but would refer to being devoid of belief in anything of any kind.

Again, 'atheism' refers to a lack of belief in the existence of a 'god' or 'gods'. The question remains, "What in reality is one referring to by the term 'god' and perhaps more importantly; "Why adopt and hold beliefs in the arbitrary, a supposed entity which itself defies definition by virtue of its lack of any referent in reality and can not possibly exist by virtue of the fact that what the existence of such an entity presupposes is in direct contradiction to that which we do or can know about reality?" Such is nothing more or other than the glorification and worship of one's own ignorance.

[sherminator]

Thanks for the answers. it's amazing how much debate one word can create.

Atheism in short then is a non belief in a god or gods?

Would anyone agree with that?

[Ellipsis]

Yes, in a nutshell.

If you want to get technical then see ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

[RATTER15]

As an Atheist, Yes!!! Thank God!!!!!

[chakka35]

LoftyLottie, the fact that I cannot prove that there is no God is of no importance or significance. When similarly challenged, Bertram Russell pointed out that he could not prove, either, that there is no china teapot in solitary orbit around the sun, but that is no indication that there is such a teapot.
Similarly, I cannot prove that there are not invisible fairies at the bottom of my garden, but until somebody gives me reason to suppose that there are I am entitled to assume that there are not. Why? Because the idea makes no sense.

The idea of God makes no sense. It is a supernatural concept. He, she, it is supposed to do magical things. So the onus is on believers to offer some evidence that this unnatural being exists. If they can't then I am entitled to assume that it doesn't.

Well, so far, no-one over the millennia since the Jews invented "God" has anyone ever produced the slightest smidgeon of such evidence. So I stand my ground.

[woofgang]

Just to get back to the OP's question, it wasn't about what we do or do not believe but how to help him win a debate/argument on another forum....my initial suggestion stands that before you enter into a debate, first define your terms.

[ll_billym]

My definition of Atheism is that it is not a belief, religion or a faith, it is a description of a world-view, or an attempt to understand reality based on evidence, or lack thereof.

An understanding of reality based on what is 'real' rather than imaginary.

An understanding of existence based on what exists rather than what does not exist.