<dh@.> wrote in message news:lm2af151tof84khrer6jpu87gsg58q89l0@4ax.com...

You people have been insisting you're atheists even if
you have no belief. I didn't believe you, certainly none of you
provided anything to persuade me to believe otherwise, but I
did my own checking to find out. What I found indicates that
you're right....people with no belief are regarded as weak
atheists. I still prefer the term wannabees. I'm in the position,
and don't want to be referred to as atheist or wannabee,
since I don't want to be an atheist. There is no reason to
call lack of belief and disbelieving by the same term. They're
not the same thing.
I don't have a belief, but do consider the possibility of God
existing to be above 50%. It sux to think that throws me in the
same group with people who feel certain there is no possibility.
*****.

Don't think this gets any of you off the wannabee list.

Who are you trying to fool with this stuff? You start out assuming that a
lot of atheists are simply liars.

You say,

"You people have been insisting you're
atheists even if

you have no belief. I didn't believe you,
certainly none of you
provided anything to persuade me to
believe otherwise ... "

Where do you get off making such an assumption and declaration? Look, by an
atheist saying something like, "We atheists would readily believe in the
existence of "God," given sufficient enough proof of his (or hers)
existence," he would be allowing for the *possibility* of such a creature.
That's it. We are *not* acknowledging an existence of God, we are saying
there is no God - until it's proven otherwise. Atheism is not a "belief" per
se, it is a *lack* of belief, or simply "unbelief," in something that others
"believe" exists.

Therefore, your statement:

"There is no reason to call lack of belief and disbelieving
by the same term. They're not the same thing."

is absurd. You're playing a semantics game. It seems to me, that you are
trying to maintain that a lack of belief, is in itself, a "belief."

In the realm of logic and reason, your implication doesn't hold water. If I
maintain that my dear friend, "Manfred, The Invisible Monkey" (who's
responsible for all the rainfall in the state of Wisconsin) exists, that's
*my* belief. You, on the other hand would not believe this to be true. It's
called disbelief, or to put it another way, a lack of belief). To go beyond
that is to do a disservice to rational thought.

You only get caught up in a
vicious circle that leads nowhere by going down that road.

As for your comment: "I don't have a belief, but do consider the possibility
of God existing to be above 50%.", I'd really like to know how you arrived
at such a relatively precise figure. It sounds pretty "made up" to me.

Greywolf

In episode <lm2af151tof84khrer6jpu87gsg58q89l0@4ax.com>, dh burst into the
room and exclaimed:

You people have been insisting you're atheists even if
you have no belief. I didn't believe you, certainly none of you provided
anything to persuade me to believe otherwise, but I did my own checking to
find out. What I found indicates that you're right....

What a thought, atheists who know what the term "atheist" means.

people with no
belief are regarded as weak atheists. I still prefer the term wannabees.

Who cares what *you prefer?

I'm in the position, and don't want to be referred to as atheist or
wannabee, since I don't want to be an atheist.

So you admit the issue is on *your end?

There is no reason to call
lack of belief and disbelieving by the same term. They're not the same
thing.

Except they are. Since you like dictionaries and such:

http://www.bartleby.com/64/C008/011.html

"The prefix dis- has several senses, but its basic meaning is 'not, not
any.' Thus disbelieve means 'to refuse to believe' and discomfort
means 'a lack of comfort.' Dis- came into English from the Old French
prefix des-, which in turn came from the Latin prefix dis-, which came
from the adverb dis-, meaning 'apart, asunder.' Dis- is an important
prefix that occurs very frequently in English in words such as discredit,
disrepair, and disrespect."

Notice the pattern? Discomfort is lack of comfort, disrepair is lack of
repair, discredit is lack of credit, disrespect is lack of respect...

I don't have a belief, but do consider the possibility of God
existing to be above 50%. It sux to think that throws me in the same group
with people who feel certain there is no possibility. *****.

Don't think this gets any of you off the wannabee list.

And you are whom that we should give a *****?

By the way, I don't accept the idea of "weak" (nor "strong") atheism
myself. There is atheism. Period. It is lacking belief in any gods.
Period.

A person who believes a god doesn't exist may be atheist but
beliefs are not part of atheism, only lack of same...

dh@. wrote:

You people have been insisting you're atheists even if you
have no belief.

It must be a ***** walking by a duck pond and announcing,
'you're not ducks because I said so.'

Quack!

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 15:09:24 -0400, dh@. wrote:

You people have been insisting you're atheists even if
you have no belief. I didn't believe you, certainly none of you
provided anything to persuade me to believe otherwise, but I
did my own checking to find out. What I found indicates that
you're right....people with no belief are regarded as weak
atheists.

Education is a wonderful thing.

I still prefer the term wannabees. I'm in the position,
and don't want to be referred to as atheist or wannabee,
since I don't want to be an atheist. There is no reason to
call lack of belief and disbelieving by the same term. They're
not the same thing.

You're right. I'd rather not have to be labeled as an atheist...but
it's easier and less time consuming than being called "non -christian,
non-jewish, non-muslim, non-hindu, non-deist etc., etc., etc."

I simply don't believe in any god thus far presented by the human race
since no evidence has ever been presented that proves their god,
disproves other gods and excludes natural occurrence. Could a god
exist? Maybe. I have an open mind, but the glaring lack of evidence
prevents me from believing it.

I don't have a belief, but do consider the possibility of God
existing to be above 50%. It sux to think that throws me in the
same group with people who feel certain there is no possibility.
*****.

We're not too happy about it either.

Don't think this gets any of you off the wannabee list.

Are you putting yourself on the list now?

dh@. writes:

I don't have a belief, but do consider the possibility of God
existing to be above 50%. It sux to think that throws me in the
same group with people who feel certain there is no possibility.

I have one belief: the universe does not lie to us.

From this, atheism is a natural consequence. I do not "believe"
that no go exists; "no god exists" is a consequential fact derived from
first principles.

Elf