RE: Hi, an agnostic here ... just agnostic.
November 8, 2016 at 4:27 am
(This post was last modified: November 8, 2016 at 4:29 am by TheHuxleyAgnostic.)
(November 8, 2016 at 3:57 am)Jesster Wrote:(November 8, 2016 at 3:46 am)TheHuxleyAgnostic Wrote: For any claim: X, you can believe X is true, believe X is false, or have no belief either way.
Person A: belief X is true, no belief X is false
Person B: no belief X is true, no belief X is false
Person C: no belief X is true, belief X is false
You can do it, if you want, but I think it's nonsensical to pretend B and C are the same, just because they share "no belief X is true", when B also shares "no belief X is false" with A. B is neither, but shares a commonality with both.
Nope. You either believe something or you do not. There are two separate claims that you are confusing and you've created a false dichotomy out of them. There is a claim that there is a god. There is another claim that there is not a god.
A theist will believe that there is a god.
An atheist will not accept that belief.
You can also accept or not accept the belief that there is no god. Either one can be an atheist.
I neither accept the belief that there is a god or the claim that there is not a god.
I haven't created a false dichotomy. I presented 3 possible options, when there are 3 possible options. Presenting only 2 options, when there are actually 3 options, is a false dichotomy.
Objectively, the corner store is either open or closed. I can believe either, or I can have no idea, and have no belief, either way.
Objectively, I'm either drinking a Coke, or I'm not. You can believe either, or, since you have no clue, you can have no belief, either way.
There are no rules on questions and at what point to label. You're just choosing to only offer two options, before labelling.
(November 8, 2016 at 4:17 am)Jesster Wrote:(November 8, 2016 at 4:10 am)TheHuxleyAgnostic Wrote: Rofl. "Atheos" is the root word of both "atheist" and "atheism", with suffix swaps. "Theist" isn't the root for "atheist" and "theism" the root for "atheism".
John Kersey the younger, A New English Dictionary (1702)
Atheism, the Opinion of
An Atheist, who denies the Being of a God.
An Universal Etymological English Dictionary, Nathan Bailey, R. Ware, 1756
ATHEIST (from Gr. without God) one that denies the exiftence of God.
A dictionary of the English language., Samuel Johnson, 1768
A’the-ist, f. One that denies the existence of a God.
“ATHEISM and atheist are words formed from Greek roots and with Greek derivative endings. Nevertheless they are not Greek ; their formation is not consonant with Greek usage. In Greek they said atheos and atheotes ; to these the English words ungodly and ungodliness correspond rather closely. In exactly the same way as ungodly, atheos was used as an expression of severe censure and moral condemnation ; this use is an old one, and the oldest that can be traced. Not till later do we find it employed to denote a certain philosophical creed ; we even meet with philosophers bearing atheos as a regular surname. We know very little of the men in question ; but it can hardly be doubted that atheos, as applied to them, implied not only a denial of the gods of popular belief, but a denial of gods in the widest sense of the word, or Atheism as it is nowadays understood.”, Atheism in pagan antiquity by Drachmann, A. B.
Rofl, you're boring me. Now you're just restating what others have said when I don't care about their authority. I don't care at all about personal usage. None of that has anything to do with the word structure. "A-" is a prefix to "theos" no matter how many times you try to deny it. "The" is the shortened form of "theos" used in "theism" and "a-" is the prefix. Look it the fuck up. I'm tired of this coming down to an assertion-fest.
I'll let the others get back to welcoming you now.
Yes, I'm sure it's much easier to just assert that people of a certain time put the word together a certain way, without any evidence to the contrary.