Isn't being an Atheist a religion?

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by iHaveNoIdea, Jan 4, 2010.

  1. Nasor Valued Senior Member

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    The Oxford English Dictionary lists "to not believe in; to have no faith in; to not credit" as a definition for "disbelieve." So, according to what is generally considered to be the most authoritative and well-respected dictionary on the English language ever produced, a person who does not believe in any gods, or has no faith in any gods, is an atheist.

    On a side note, it has always amused me how people who don't call themselves atheists insist on trying to tell people who do call themselves atheists what the word means.
     
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  3. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    Wrong. It's not always, but it can be.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicit_and_explicit_atheism
     
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  5. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    oxford
     
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  7. Scaramouche Registered Member

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    It's the Internet. It's full of little cliques that invent their own realities and agree with each other and then try to push the idea that their agreed-upon crap is actual reality.
     
  8. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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  9. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    I guess I have to explain this slowly. Any word can be anything any kindergartener wants it to be. What we're discussing here is standard usage for the sake of relevant discussion on a topic. When you're with your little cliqies, you can use any terminology you want. In a legit discussion however, it's best to go by standard definitions.
     
  10. Scaramouche Registered Member

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    Ages ago I was looking at Wikipedia's entry about the death penalty, and loaded the page just after someone edited it. It was quite funny.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  11. Nasor Valued Senior Member

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    The OED defines "atheism" as " Disbelief in, or denial of, the existence of a God." I don't know what you were quoting there, but it wasn't the Oxford English Dictionary.

    "Disbelieve" is defined as "Not to believe or credit."

    "Believe" is defined as "To have confidence or faith in."

    Do you have confidence that a god exists? If not, then you disbelieve in god. If you disbelieve in god, you are an atheist. But hey, I'm only referencing the Oxford English Dictionary here. What is that compared to a bunch of random web pages?

    Edit: Upon further review, you were apparently quoting some bullshit dictionary that isn't the OED, but that simply stuck "Oxford" in its name in an attempt to fool people who aren't paying close attention into thinking it's somehow related to the OED.
     
  12. Scaramouche Registered Member

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    This website is actually a website of Oxford University Press, the folks who make the Oxford English Dictionary. The website uses the definitions from their compact edition.
     
  13. Nasor Valued Senior Member

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    6,231
    And this website is the actual dictionary:

    http://dictionary.oed.com/

    But thanks for the correction. If it's true that the website is using the "compact edition," them the compact edition must be pretty different from the full edition. The full edition defines "atheism" as "Disbelief in, or denial of, the existence of a God." Given the definitions of "disbelief" and "belief" (see above) it seems quite clear that a person who simply does not have confidence that a god exists is an atheist.
     
  14. Scaramouche Registered Member

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    Yeah. Need a subscription for that one. Which is why they made the other website with the Compact definitions.
     
  15. Scaramouche Registered Member

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    Which means, this
    is silly.
     
  16. Nasor Valued Senior Member

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    6,231
    True. That's why I said "thanks for the correction" in my previous post. Never the less, I'll still go with the full edition's definition rather than some chopped-down edition.
     
  17. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    The only mention of Wiki is a statement of yours (unsubstantiated) about "cliques".

    Correct: and, as shown, your personal definition is incorrect.
     
  18. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    It's not my personal definition. Disbelief is a rejection of something as false. That is the dictionary. Atheism is the rejection of theism as false. That is the dictionary. The term atheism by standard, does not and should not be used to described nontheists who do not reject theism.
     
  19. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    Oops, wrong again:
    http://www.yourdictionary.com/disbelief

    As has been pointed out to you more than once.
     
  20. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    Why the hell would you reference your dictionary with your personal defintion, and then tell me that I am using my own definition when I'm referencing actual dictionaries?

    Either way, nobody takes infedel.com's kindergarten definitions of atheism seriously. In the adult world, not all nontheists are atheists. In the adult world, agnosticism is not a type of atheism. In that adult world, labeling all nontheists as atheists is a misuse of standard terminology. Just because you worship the bolloks on their website doesn't mean anybody else will take it seriously.
     
  21. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    And you're wrong again.
    You've been given numerous definitions, Nasor's being the latest. But you seem to ignore them, so it looks like possibly the only way to get through to you is to repeat it ad infinitum.

    And your experience of the "adult world" would be...?
    It appears you have as little familiarity with English as you do with relativity.
    If it doesn't conform to your personal take on it it must be wrong.

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    Fatuously stupid assumption/ assertion on your part.
     
  22. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    It's not an assumption. Those people are like viruses. they convert people to their definitions. And the people who get converted start converting others to their definitions which aren't acknowledged in any legitimate discussion. They fanatically uphold those definitions as if they were correct. Then go around 'correcting' others who are actually using the term 'atheism' correctly.
     
  23. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    19,252
    Er:
    IS an assumption.

    But so is that. You have yet to provide any evidence.
    (And bear in mind particular one is Webster's...)
     

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