Religions > Atheism > best dictionary definition of Atheism that actually makes sense!!! Must read for Xtians!
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Robert the NOLA Atheist" |
| Date: |
01 Apr 2005 06:03:29 PM |
| Object: |
best dictionary definition of Atheism that actually makes sense!!! Must read for Xtians! |
atheism
Atheism is traditionally defined as disbelief in the existence of God.
As such, atheism involves active rejection of belief in the existence
of God.
However, since there are many concepts of God and these concepts are
usually rooted in some culture or tradition, atheism might be defined
as the belief that a particular word used to refer to a particular god
is a word that has no reference. Thus, there are as many different
kinds of atheism as there are names of gods.
Some atheists may know of many gods and reject belief in the existence
of all of them. Such a person might be called a polyatheist. But most
people who consider themselves atheists probably mean that they do not
believe in the existence of the local god. For example, most people
who call themselves atheists in a culture where the
Judeo-Christian-Islamic God (JCIG) dominates would mean, at the very
least, that they deny that there is an Omnipotent and Omniscient
Providential Personal Creator of the universe. On the other hand,
people who believe in the JCIG would consider such denial tantamount
to atheism. Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), for example, defined God as
being identical to Nature and as a substance with infinite attributes.
Many Jews and Christians considered him an atheist because he rejected
both the traditional JCIG and the belief in personal immortality.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was also considered an atheist because he
believed that all substances are material and that God must therefore
be material. Yet, neither Spinoza nor Hobbes called themselves
atheists.
Epicurus did not call himself an atheist, either, but he rejected the
concept of the gods popular in ancient Greece. The gods are perfect,
he said. Therefore, they cannot be the imperfect beings depicted by
Hesiod, Homer, and others. Their gods have human flaws, including
jealousy. Perfect beings would not be troubled by anything, including
the behavior of humans. Hence, the notion that the gods will reward or
punish us is absurd. To be perfect is to be unperturbed. The concept
of perfection, therefore, requires that the gods be indifferent to
human behavior. Some have rejected belief in the Christian God for
similar reasons. The idea of a perfect being creating the universe is
self-contradictory. How can perfection be improved upon? To create is
to indicate a lack, an imperfection. If that objection can be
answered, another arises: if God is All-Good and All-Powerful, evil
should not exist. Therefore, either God is All-Good but allows evil
because God is not All-Powerful, or God is All-Powerful but allows
evil because God is not All-Good. Such an argument clearly does not
deny the existence of all gods.
Others have rejected the Christian God because they believe that the
concept of worship, essential to most Christians, contradicts the
concept of omnipotence (Rachels 1989). Still others reject a belief in
the JCIG because they consider the scriptures used to support that
belief to be unbelievable. Some theologians have tried to prove
through reason alone that this God exists. Rejection of such proofs,
however, is not atheism.
Some Christians consider Buddhists to be atheists, apparently for the
same reason they consider Spinoza or Plato to be atheists: Anyone who
rejects the Omnipotent and All-Good Providential Personal Creator
rejects God. Yet, rejecting the JCIG is not to reject all gods. Nor is
rejecting the JCIG the same as rejecting belief in an ultimate ground
or principle of being and goodness, a being that explains both why
there is something rather than nothing and why everything is as it is.
Nor is rejection of the JCIG the same as rejecting belief in a realm
of beings such as devas or spirits that are not limited by mortality
and other human or animal frailties.
Finally, atheists do not deny that people have ‘mystical’ or
‘religious’ experiences, where one feels God’s presence or a sense of
the oneness and significance of everything in the universe. Nor do
atheists deny that many people experience God’s presence in their
everyday lives. Atheists deny that the brain states that result in
such feelings and experiences have supernatural causes.
How widespread is atheism? A worldwide survey in 2000 by the Gallup
polling agency found that 8% do not think there is any spirit,
personal God, or life force. Another 17% are not sure. However, more
than half the world’s population, and more than 90% of the world’s
scientists, do not believe in a personal God, and hence would be
considered atheists by many Christians.
See related entries on agnosticism, gods, miracles, and theism.
further reading
reader comments
* The Secular Web
* The Atheism Web
* Arguments for Atheism - The Freethought Zone
* Welcome to alt.atheism!
* The Atheist Alliance
* AmericanAtheist: A Journal of Atheist News and Thought
* Life, the Universe, and Everything: An Interview with Douglas
Adams (author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) by David Silverman
* The Buddhist Attitude to God by Dr V. A. Gunasekara
* Religious Beliefs of Americans
* Atheism Resources on the Web
Online Texts
* Darrow, Clarence. Absurdities of the Bible
* Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan (1651), ch. XII, "Of Religion."
* Hume, David. "Of Miracles," ch. X of An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding
* Spinoza, Baruch de. Theologico-Political Treatise (1670).
* Spinoza, Baruch de. The Ethics
Alper, Matthew. The "God" Part of the Brain. 4th ed. (Rogue Press
2001).
Alper, M. et al. NeuroTheology: Brain, Science, Spirituality,
Religious Experience 2nd edition (University Press 2003).
Berman, David. ed. Atheism in Britain, 5 vols., (Bristol, UK: Thoemmes
Press, 1996).
Boyer, Pascal. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of
Religious Thought (Basic Books 2002).
Freud, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion (1927).
Johnson, B. C. The Atheist Debater's Handbook (Buffalo, N.Y.:
Prometheus Books, 1981).
Krueger, Douglas E. What Is Atheism? : A Short Introduction
(Prometheus, 1998).
Martin, Michael. Atheism : a Philosophical Justification
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990).
Mills, David. 2004. Atheist Universe: Why God Didn't Have A Thing To
Do With It. Xlibris Corporation.
Newberg, Andrew M.D., Eugene G. D'Aquili and Vince Rause. Why God
Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief (Ballantine
Books, 2001).
Persinger, Michael. Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs (Praeger
Pub Text., 1987).
Rachels, James. "God and Human Attitudes," in Religious Studies 7
(1971). Reprinted in Philosophy and the Human Condition, 2nd. ed.
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1989), pp. 509-518.
Russell, Bertrand Arthur. Why I Am Not a Christian, and Other Essays
on Religion and Related Subjects (Simon & Schuster, 1977).
Popkin, Richard H. Spinoza (Oneworld Publications 2004).
Smith, George H. Atheism : the Case Against God (Buffalo, N.Y.:
Prometheus Books, 1979).
Smith, Homer. Man and His Gods, foreword by Albert Einstein (Boston:
Little, Brown and Company, 1952).
http://skepdic.com/atheism.html
"[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government." -- Judge Lawrence Tribe
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| User: "Frank J Warner" |
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| Title: Re: best dictionary definition of Atheism that actually makes sense!!! Must read for Xtians! |
05 Apr 2005 01:15:49 PM |
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In article <m43r415e04v7utfgun84bm0h87fdmvukm0@4ax.com>, Robert the
NOLA Atheist <nolarobert@yahoo.com> wrote:
atheism
Atheism is traditionally defined as disbelief in the existence of God.
As such, atheism involves active rejection of belief in the existence
of God.
Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism
-Frank
--
Here's some of my work:
http://www.franksknives.com
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| User: "Steve Knight" |
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| Title: Re: best dictionary definition of Atheism that actually makes sense!!! Must read for Xtians! |
02 Apr 2005 01:36:33 AM |
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On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 12:03:29 -0600, Robert the NOLA Atheist
<nolarobert@yahoo.com> wrote:
snip for brevity
atheism
Atheism is traditionally defined as disbelief in the existence of God.
As such, atheism involves active rejection of belief in the existence
of God.
However, since there are many concepts of God and these concepts are
usually rooted in some culture or tradition, atheism might be defined
as the belief that a particular word used to refer to a particular god
is a word that has no reference. Thus, there are as many different
kinds of atheism as there are names of gods.
I don't associate my atheism with culture or a society or by being
in a geographical region. The very word 'god' from any source requires
evidence. I haven't the slightest interest in knowing the motivation,
values or determinations of superstitious word soup. For me it's a
matter of 'you said it... prove it.'
Theists are reduce to arguing you into superstition. Where's the
truth in that?
Warlord Steve
BAAWA
www.sonic.net/~wooly
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| User: "Robert the NOLA Atheist" |
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| Title: Re: best dictionary definition of Atheism that actually makes sense!!! Must read for Xtians! |
05 Apr 2005 08:41:19 AM |
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As a historian, I still use the cultural aspect of atheism since the
Romans viewed (correctly) that the Christians were atheists and would
upset the pax deorum since they refused to worship the Roman deities.
By understanding the historical significance of such "atheism," it
helps me deal with theists today. I enjoy pointing out to Christian
fundamentalists that if they had been born in the Middle East, they
would be Muslim or Jewish (most likely) thanks to the dominant culture
there. So instead of trying to convince me that Jesus is the way,
they would be up in my grill about Allah. Some miss the point but I
have been surprised how many actually stop and think that point over.
Once you start the process of thinking, faith becomes a hard thing for
them to cling to anymore.
On Sat, 02 Apr 2005 01:36:33 GMT, Steve Knight <wooly@sonic.net>
wrote:
atheism
Atheism is traditionally defined as disbelief in the existence of God.
As such, atheism involves active rejection of belief in the existence
of God.
However, since there are many concepts of God and these concepts are
usually rooted in some culture or tradition, atheism might be defined
as the belief that a particular word used to refer to a particular god
is a word that has no reference. Thus, there are as many different
kinds of atheism as there are names of gods.
I don't associate my atheism with culture or a society or by being
in a geographical region. The very word 'god' from any source requires
evidence. I haven't the slightest interest in knowing the motivation,
values or determinations of superstitious word soup. For me it's a
matter of 'you said it... prove it.'
Theists are reduce to arguing you into superstition. Where's the
truth in that?
Warlord Steve
BAAWA
www.sonic.net/~wooly
"[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government." -- Judge Lawrence Tribe
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| User: "FreeThink" |
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| Title: Re: best dictionary definition of Atheism that actually makes sense!!! Must read for Xtians! |
05 Apr 2005 09:01:18 AM |
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Robert the NOLA Atheist wrote:
As a historian, I still use the cultural aspect of atheism since the
Romans viewed (correctly) that the Christians were atheists and would
upset the pax deorum since they refused to worship the Roman deities.
By understanding the historical significance of such "atheism," it
helps me deal with theists today. I enjoy pointing out to Christian
fundamentalists that if they had been born in the Middle East, they
would be Muslim or Jewish (most likely) thanks to the dominant
culture
there. So instead of trying to convince me that Jesus is the way,
they would be up in my grill about Allah. Some miss the point but I
have been surprised how many actually stop and think that point over.
Once you start the process of thinking, faith becomes a hard thing
for
them to cling to anymore.
On Sat, 02 Apr 2005 01:36:33 GMT, Steve Knight <wooly@sonic.net>
wrote:
atheism
Atheism is traditionally defined as disbelief in the existence of
God.
As such, atheism involves active rejection of belief in the
existence
of God.
However, since there are many concepts of God and these concepts
are
usually rooted in some culture or tradition, atheism might be
defined
as the belief that a particular word used to refer to a particular
god
is a word that has no reference. Thus, there are as many different
kinds of atheism as there are names of gods.
I don't associate my atheism with culture or a society or by
being
in a geographical region. The very word 'god' from any source
requires
evidence. I haven't the slightest interest in knowing the
motivation,
values or determinations of superstitious word soup. For me it's a
matter of 'you said it... prove it.'
Theists are reduce to arguing you into superstition. Where's the
truth in that?
Warlord Steve
BAAWA
www.sonic.net/~wooly
"[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and
minorities against the tyranny of the >majority, but it's also designed
to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government." ->-
Judge Lawrence Tribe
That is a good tip, thanks. I like to use arguments that are inclusive
of everyone when debating theists. It reduces the tendency for being
combative. I put a lot of value in behaviorism. Atheists would have
been theists as well if they had experienced more theist conducive
conditions in their earlier life.
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| User: "Robert the NOLA Atheist" |
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| Title: Re: best dictionary definition of Atheism that actually makes sense!!! Must read for Xtians! |
05 Apr 2005 12:28:27 PM |
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I was born an Atheist raised in a Southern Baptist home and community.
Despite the attempt to brainwash me with their dogma, I never could
accept the "truth" of Christianity. So I guess Christians, Jews,
Muslims, Hindus, etc etc etc will always have to deal with Atheists.
Who else is going to keep them honest?
On 5 Apr 2005 02:01:18 -0700, "FreeThink" <zeno7772004@yahoo.com>
wrote:
That is a good tip, thanks. I like to use arguments that are inclusive
of everyone when debating theists. It reduces the tendency for being
combative. I put a lot of value in behaviorism. Atheists would have
been theists as well if they had experienced more theist conducive
conditions in their earlier life.
"[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government." -- Judge Lawrence Tribe
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| User: "Ferrous Patella" |
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| Title: Re: best dictionary definition of Atheism that actually makes sense!!! Must read for Xtians! |
02 Apr 2005 12:53:04 AM |
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news:m43r415e04v7utfgun84bm0h87fdmvukm0@4ax.com by Robert the NOLA Atheist
<nolarobert@yahoo.com>:
Atheism is traditionally defined as disbelief in the existence of God
[...]
Thor, Chuhuli, Zeus, Huitzilopochtli, Shiva, Alberich, Johovah, Pan,
Quetzalcoatl, Buddah, Ra, Loki, Juno, Venus, Xochipilli, Baal, Frigg,
Isis, Ki, Mercury, Nut and Oden.
This is a partial list. How does it compare to yours? Off by only one.
Well, you are mostly an atheist.
--
Ferrous Patella (Homo gerardii)
T.A., Philosophy Lab
University of Ediacara
"Nature as God's "reality" show - what a concept!"
--A t.o. poster who wishes to remain anonymous
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| User: "Vic Sagerquist" |
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| Title: Re: best dictionary definition of Atheism that actually makes sense!!! Must read for Xtians! |
01 Apr 2005 07:45:48 PM |
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on 01 Apr 2005 in alt.atheism, Robert the NOLA Atheist dropped trou,
farted, whirled, then shouted:
atheism
<snip>
Nice, but that's got to be the longest definition I've ever seen.
--
Vic Sagerquist
aa#2011
Supervisor, EAC Department of little adhesive-backed "L" shaped
chrome-plastic doo-dads to add feet to Jesus fish department
Plonked by Jason Gastrich for all eternity...
______________
As you were, I was. As I am, you will be.
--- Hunter S. Thompson
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| User: "Robert the NOLA Atheist" |
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| Title: Re: best dictionary definition of Atheism that actually makes sense!!! Must read for Xtians! |
01 Apr 2005 10:39:55 PM |
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Vic:
Anything is better than the theist crap you get out of Webster's and
all of the other "mainstream" dictionaries that try to claim we don't
believe in (a) god. This one may be long, but at least it is
detailed. Naturally, that means it is way over the heads of most
fundamentalists.
On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 13:45:48 -0600, Vic Sagerquist
<address@withheld.com> wrote:
on 01 Apr 2005 in alt.atheism, Robert the NOLA Atheist dropped trou,
farted, whirled, then shouted:
atheism
<snip>
Nice, but that's got to be the longest definition I've ever seen.
"[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government." -- Judge Lawrence Tribe
.
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