A modern explanation of the terms "theist", "atheist" and "agnostic"

Pinball1970 said:
I blame my grandad for that. He was a devout catholic and he associated communism with turning away from god and Stalin's atrocities.
The silly thing is that he was an engineer in Manchester during the war effort, a working class labour supporter. A labour government was voted in after the war and he became a trade unionist at some point.
He would have been to exposed to a lot of anti ruling class, pro proletariat, anti bourgeoisie rhetoric from the 1940s onwards Probably Marxist Lennin literature, speakers and debates too. Far closer to communism than he knew.
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Ваш дедушка был абсолютно прав. Ленинизм и сталинизм - это действительно сатанизм и отход от Бога. Я тоже, как и ваш дедушка, это всё ненавижу. Это человеконенавистнические режимы, и у них до сих пор немало сторонников в России. Моя мечта - собрать их всех, и отправить жить в Северную Корею навсегда, без права возвращения.
 
Pinball1970 said:
Theists do not understand that. If you get into a discussion about religion, they think you went to university to study atheism.
You decided you hated Jesus at 15 because you wanted to have sex and smoke pot, so you decided to study Dawkins and Hitchens for your undergraduate with a view to doing an MA in Evolution.

The vast majority of atheists I know and have spoken to just came to reject the claims of their religion, that's it. Many including me were not happy with the label and it's connotations.
I thought an atheist was a communist when I was a kid, communists being bad because they are Russian!

"I suppose this means I am an atheist," was my conclusion after finally rejecting it all.
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The irony is that I became an atheist through reading the bible. I have heard the name Richard Dawkins. Never read any of his books. Don't have a clue who Hitchens is. No, I studied the bible and came out the other end a non-believer.
 
I've never heard of Hitchens either.

EDIT: OMG I am aware of his legacy though, it seems.

It is he who invented the epistemological razor "what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence". Which I use with regularity here in sci-fo.
 
gmilam said:
The irony is that I became an atheist through reading the bible. I have heard the name Richard Dawkins. Never read any of his books. Don't have a clue who Hitchens is. No, I studied the bible and came out the other end a non-believer.
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When all of my doubts and questions came to the fore I turned to the Bible.
I started at the beginning and pretty quickly I realised it was created by men, not just written, but conceived by men.
 
DaveC426913 said:
I've never heard of Hitchens either.

EDIT: OMG I am aware of his legacy though, it seems.

It is he who invented the epistemological razor "what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence". Which I use with regularity here in sci-fo.
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I think he was already dead when I came across him. Dawkins referenced him so I checked his book out, "God is not great."
Lots of his debates on YouTube.
 
gmilam said:
The irony is that I became an atheist through reading the bible. I have heard the name Richard Dawkins. Never read any of his books. Don't have a clue who Hitchens is. No, I studied the bible and came out the other end a non-believer.
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Hitchens was a beautiful speaker and witty debater. Lots of apologists took him on during his book tours and luckily these were recorded.
He died in 2011 of cancer, he did interviews while receiving treatment.
Some of his monologues are to me unparalleled.
 
gmilam said:
The irony is that I became an atheist through reading the bible. I have heard the name Richard Dawkins. Never read any of his books. Don't have a clue who Hitchens is. No, I studied the bible and came out the other end a non-believer.
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When Hitchens published "God is not great" he did interviews, talk shows, debates and appeared on the radio.
This appearance on aptly named "Wretched radio" features him taking part in the "what if" game. The DJ has done his prep, has his script and gotcha cards but obviously did not know enough about Hitchens.
I recommend DaveC426913 has a listen too.

 
DaveC426913 said:
Whereas your grandad fully embraced God and Stalin's atrocities. :biggrin::biggrin:
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You know what I meant!

Seriously, grandad was intelligent but he was also very opinionated, racist, catholic and a bunch of other stuff.

Mum said he would "turn in his grave," at my political and religious views today.
 
Pinball1970 said:
You know what I meant!

Seriously, grandad was intelligent but he was also very opinionated, racist, catholic and a bunch of other stuff.

Mum said he would "turn in his grave," at my political and religious views today.
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Having said that he was the greatest loss I ever experienced as a kid. He was so clever, I thought every grown up must know everything like he did but they didn't.
 
Pinball1970 said:
Having said that he was the greatest loss I ever experienced as a kid. He was so clever, I thought every grown up must know everything like he did but they didn't.
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С опытом начинаешь понимать и ценить те поколения. Они были сильные, им с детства пришлось пройти через трудности.
 
ольга said:
С опытом начинаешь понимать и ценить те поколения. Они были сильные, им с детства пришлось пройти через трудности.
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Absolutely. He was 11 when the great war kicked in. Lord knows what that did to him. In my city and surrounding towns there are memorials everywhere. Young kids, teenagers sent to slaughter.
He lost a lot of teachers, friends and family.
Everyone did.
 
Pinball1970 said:
Absolutely. He was 11 when the great war kicked in. Lord knows what that did to him. In my city and surrounding towns there are memorials everywhere. Young kids, teenagers sent to slaughter.
He lost a lot of teachers, friends and family.
Everyone did.
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И не смотря ни на что, они сохранили порядочность и человечность. Мы сейчас в большинстве своём "тепличные".
"Тяжёлые времена рождают сильных людей.
Сильные люди создают хорошие времена.
Хорошие времена рождают слабых людей.
Слабые люди создают тяжёлые времена". Не помню, чья это цитата.
 
ольга said:
И не смотря ни на что, они сохранили порядочность и человечность. Мы сейчас в большинстве своём "тепличные".
"Тяжёлые времена рождают сильных людей.
Сильные люди создают хорошие времена.
Хорошие времена рождают слабых людей.
Слабые люди создают тяжёлые времена". Не помню, чья это цитата.
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He was tough and was intellectually fierce. Constantly challenging me as a kid.
I took points from him, how the hell did he get so much knowledge? Where did he get it from?
I have easy access now but i think of him, easy access may not be the best way
 
Pinball1970 said:
He was tough and was intellectually fierce. Constantly challenging me as a kid.
I took points from him, how the hell did he get so much knowledge? Where did he get it from?
I have easy access now but i think of him, easy access may not be the best way
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Это как с продуктами в магазинах(по крайней мере у нас в России так): ассортимент большой, но хорошего качества и натуральных не так уж и много. А раньше выбор был не слишком большой, но качество было лучше. Со знаниями так же: было меньше готовой информации, и людям приходилось больше думать своей головой. Это развивало в хорошую сторону.
 
ольга said:
Это как с продуктами в магазинах(по крайней мере у нас в России так): ассортимент большой, но хорошего качества и натуральных не так уж и много. А раньше выбор был не слишком большой, но качество было лучше. Со знаниями так же: было меньше готовой информации, и людям приходилось больше думать своей головой. Это развивало в хорошую сторону.
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That's a nice analogy Olga. Thank you.
 
Pinball1970 said:
That made my head spin a little bit James R just scan reading it!

I think there are two other terms that are useful, anti-theist. Someone who thinks religion is a bad is a for humanity (me)
Henotheism which less familiar but very pertinent to Christians or should be.

The Ancient Israelites were polytheistic, they at times worshipped more than one god.

They eventually became not monotheistic but henotheistic, they still thought other gods existed but they only worshipped Yhwh.
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Other gods did exist in their world, the Hebrew God went one on one using their prophets, and prophecies etc. and the prophet of the Hebrews easily defeated the god Bhaal, who didn't show up even... Numbers 25:3
 
Theist - God exists.
Atheist - There is no God as far as I can discern.
Agnostic - There may or may not be a God, I don't know.
Spiritual - I will investigate
Partial realist - I doubt God exists from investigating, but I can't prove it.
Realist - Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.
 
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