Thanks for the clarification on linguistic history.
In the same way certain bible thumpers relish the thought of parading their "salvation" to the children of the damned (aka, the rest of us), I believe there is a small subset of anti Christian zealots who fully realize the word "atheist" has maximum annoying effect on bible thumpers.
Some of it depends on what is meant by the word "God" or Gods. An anthropomorphized literal interpretation of a Judeo-Christian God straight out of the Book of Job is obviously an easy target of ridicule. Even Catholic, Orthodox, and mainline Protestants believe God is utterly incomprehensible and cannot be literally imagined in the human mind. More broadly, in world religious tradition, Gods, deities, spirits are just different faces humans put on a spiritual truth or higher reality underlying the universe.
I agree that agnosticism is the posture which most likely is reached through the exercise of reason. Unequivocal, definitive certainty that there either is, or is not a spiritual dimension, a higher reality to the universe is not the sort of posture which can be arrived at by reason. Reason and human cognition are going to fail us sometimes. We are not omniscient beings - we basically only have the brains of a souped-up chimpanzee.
Frank Apisa (04-21-2021), ThatOwlWoman (04-21-2021)
Almost all people are raised with some sort of moral guidance. Whether that comes from a religion or from the culture into which they're born varies by society, and individual family. Religious ppl often make the same mistake you do of believing that those who don't adhere to a faith (usually the one that the religious person has) are without a moral compass. Almost every single one of us can point to an instance in their personal life where a so-called Christian (or other religious person) screwed them over, cheated on their spouse, lied, robbed, cheated, etc. It would be a mistake to then extrapolate from that and claim that all Christians (or whatever) are immoral. But that's what YOU are trying to do here -- claim that atheists are amoral simply by virtue of the fact that they aren't believers in a deity like you claim to be.
"Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals." -- Mark Twain
PMP can't be a decent person without a guidebook to tell him how to act. Even then, he is still obviously a horror of a person. If that's what his religion has crafted, I'll say no thanks and call it a day.
ThatOwlWoman (04-21-2021)
Unfortunately you are right. Most of those here who loudly proclaim themselves Christians are poor representatives of that faith. If you were a moral being newly arrived here from another world and were looking over the banquet of religions on Earth, you would skip right by that one in favor of something else. On the other hand if you prefer your chosen faith to be a club that you can wield against others to show your alleged superiority, the Christianity of PMP, Stretch, Toxic, RB, etc. is for you. Same with the Buddhism of Dukka.
"Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals." -- Mark Twain
I am pretty certain I know my own mind better than you do. So I can state without equivocation that you are 100% incorrect about my belief. If you want to object to the term on a linguistic technicality, be my guest. Just don't pretend to know what I'm thinking, or tell me it makes no sense.
So, that being said, here is MY stance:
There is no scientific evidence that God exists. There has never been a proven supernatural explanation for any observable phenomenon, therefore God does not need to exist to explain anything in our natural world. Therefore I do not believe that God exists. I really don't care what label you want to apply to that position. The commonly accepted term is atheist. Any other guess as to what my position is would be a completely inaccurate guess.
Proof of that? BTW, how could have the word "atheist" come before "theist", or for that matter "gods"? In order for "atheism" to be coined, "theism" (or "gods") has also have to be coined first.According to many atheists, the word "atheist" is a result of the etymological "a" Greek for without...prefixing "theist" meaning person who believes in a god...and results in "without a belief in a god."
THEY ARE WRONG.
First of all, the word "atheist" came into the English language BEFORE "theist"...so atheist could not have derived that way.
That would be agnostic atheists.Agnostics are the true non-believers on the issue.
Again, how do they have an "active belief"? Do you have an active belief that Santa Claus doesn't exist?People who use atheist...do have an active belief.
Last edited by PostmodernProphet; 04-21-2021 at 10:30 AM.
Isaiah 6:5
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
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