RE: Why do you not believe in the concept of a God?
June 1, 2021 at 12:50 pm
(This post was last modified: June 1, 2021 at 12:52 pm by Angrboda.)
(June 1, 2021 at 12:36 pm)johndoe122931 Wrote:(June 1, 2021 at 12:06 pm)Brian37 Wrote: Ok, if you want people to speak for themselves as individuals, AWESOME. Then you should also then understand why you can't call "atheist" a "worldview."Yes, I understand that. That is why I asked for clarification before when another individual objected to my use of that term, but I received no input as to how one would like for me to describe the said view. My reasoning is that it is how one views the world or their reality. If you want to get picky with words that's fine, but please instead of just telling me not to use it give me another way to refer to it. Thank you!
I think his point is that you're misunderstanding atheism if you think it correlates with a way of relating to the world beyond simply not including a god in theirs. This is a subject that typically garners some broad-ranging discussion and even atheists don't agree upon the subject. Atheism entails no ideological commitments. Not believing in a god is not an ideology. This basic fact has led many to liken getting atheists to agree on other things as akin to herding cats. That being said, some generalities can be made, but they are just generalities and may not hold true in any specific case. I suppose coming at it from the outside, one gets an impression as to what a 'typical' atheist is like, just as one forms initial impressions of any group. It's worth bearing in mind that those impressions, those generalized traits, aren't atheism.
It's also worth noting that there are religious atheists. Buddhism, in the main strands, isn't about gods. And there were atheistic strands of Hinduism as well. The reason one might overlook these facts might have to do with a tendency to associate a worldview or ideological tendencies with atheism, which, in these cases, is grossly misleading.