I always hear atheists saying how they "lack" belief in God. To me, this is a rather silly thing to say. The verb "lack" means a deficiency or absence of something that should be there.

Yet as we all know, faith in God has to be taught. We are all born atheists (at least passively), so evidently disbelief in God cannot be seen as a lack. It is a disbelief, a non-belief, whatever, but not a "lack" of a belief.

Despite that the very word atheist (in English the word "Theist" with the reversing "a" prefix) relies on theims for its meaning ...if there were no theists we would not consider ourselves to be atheists.

Kyu

Didn't the original meaning of the word come from the greek "atheos" meaning "a" (without) "theos" (god)?

(November 9, 2008 at 9:26 am)Tiberius Wrote: Didn't the original meaning of the word come from the greek "atheos" meaning "a" (without) "theos" (god)?

My argument is based around the word Greek word "theos" meaning to "be with god" and the use of the English language prefix "a" which reverse the sense of the word.

I didn't know there was a word "atheos" ... if there is, and that's what it means, I may have to rethink my argument. A brief search on the internet doesn't reveal much but an operating system called Atheos.

Kyu

Well I know the "atheos" word from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist#Etymology

Quote:In early Ancient Greek, the adjective atheos (ἄθεος, from the privative ἀ- + θεός "god") meant "godless".

Note the use of the separation of ἀ and θεός (god), being the combination of the two words "without"(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privative_a) and "god".

(November 9, 2008 at 9:55 am)Tiberius Wrote: Well I know the "atheos" word from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist#Etymology

Thank you for the link ... the argument will be modified in future.

Kyu

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(November 9, 2008 at 9:55 am)Tiberius Wrote: Well I know the "atheos" word from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist#Etymology

This may be of relevance (http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/athart3.htm), haven't read it through yet but it seems to be suggesting that "atheos" is still based on the meaning of "theos" (just a lot earlier than I thought). The guy writing this is a theist and is strongly anti the view that atheism is not a active belief in the non-existence of deity but his arguments, whilst quite well written, seem to sum up atheist arguments and then just say "oh no they're not"

"The term atheos (a- means without; theos means god or gods) can be found in antiquity." Jon Meacham

Kyu

Interesting, I thought atheist means not a theist. Not lack of. But complete absence of theism.

The definitions do range a little, which is why I think this sums it up quite well:

Quote:Anyone who answers the question "Do you believe in God" in anything but the positive is an atheist.[quote]
By that sampling you include both people who say no and "I don't know" (knowing is of course different from belief but some people simply don't understand that)

[quote='Kyuuketsuki' pid='3757' dateline='1226238993']
This may be of relevance (http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/athart3.htm), haven't read it through yet but it seems to be suggesting that "atheos" is still based on the meaning of "theos" (just a lot earlier than I thought). The guy writing this is a theist and is strongly anti the view that atheism is not a active belief in the non-existence of deity but his arguments, whilst quite well written, seem to sum up atheist arguments and then just say "oh no they're not"

"The term atheos (a- means without; theos means god or gods) can be found in antiquity." Jon Meacham

Kyu

Yeah, I think when it comes down to it, I trust Wikipedia (with it's historian editors / language experts / peer reviewing) more than one theist who is completely biased. Wikipedia is a good resource in regards to popular articles.

Sometimes I prefer to say "lack of". I put this down to the fact that if I say I "don't believe in" to some people it gives the impression that I'm claiming the non-existence of God, or Gnostic Atheism, where as I'm simply an Agnostic Atheist. I think "lack of" shows a more passive position of waiting to see evidence presented to prove the claim, but I agree it alludes to the assumption that there's something absent where there should be something present.
I've read some arguements about lack of evidence being sufficient to actively believe there is no God, but I can't quite bring myself to that position.

Gah, semantics!

(November 9, 2008 at 8:26 am)Tiberius Wrote: I always hear atheists saying how they "lack" belief in God. To me, this is a rather silly thing to say. The verb "lack" means a deficiency or absence of something that should be there.

Yet as we all know, faith in God has to be taught. We are all born atheists (at least passively), so evidently disbelief in God cannot be seen as a lack. It is a disbelief, a non-belief, whatever, but not a "lack" of a belief.

I would never use the word/expression.
The word itself suggests you are missing out on something desireable.
God is not desireable.