Atheism and Anti-Theism same thing?

[Excited Penguin]

I supposed there many different levels of being anti-theist, ranging from "I think it's stupid" (1) to "people should be killed for it" (10).

I'd put myself as a 2 on that scale. As usual, I think education is the weapon of choice, rather than trying to force people to do anything. However any active forms of harm or privilege should be opposed on principle.

I'd think the degree to which you'd oppose religion/theism would have to be proportional to the gravity of the situation. I might be a (1) on something and effectively a (10) on something else. Not that you should kill people merely for having some beliefs, but for what those beliefs imply about their future actions. And in some circumstances, that would warrant a (10).

[The Grand Nudger]

 They are both rejections of the assertion that a god exists.

Negatron.  Anti-theism has nothing to do with whether or not a god exists.  Christ, now we're discussing a numbered anti-theistic scale with 10 as "kill em"?  That's not level 10 anti-theism, ffs..that's garden variety crazy.

wtf Rob...? lol....

[Excited Penguin]

 They are both rejections of the assertion that a god exists.

Negatron.  Anti-theism has nothing to do with whether or not a god exists.  Christ, now we're discussing a numbered anti-theistic scale with 10 as "kill em"?  That's not level 10 anti-theism, ffs..that's garden variety crazy.

wtf Rob...? lol....

 Anti-theism has nothing to do with whether or not a god exists. 

It's got everything to do with it. Not to be confused with Misotheism.

[The Grand Nudger]

It really doesn't EP, an antitheist would be a miso or maltheist if there were gods or if they believed in gods.

[Excited Penguin]

It really doesn't EP, an antitheist would be a miso or maltheist if there were gods or if they believed in gods.

I believe that if you don't believe something, you are passively against it, and vice versa.

[Excited Penguin]

The Chambers Dictionary defines antitheism in three different ways: "doctrine antagonistic to theism; 'denial' of the existence of a God; opposition to God." To be clear, "opposition to God" is not in most meanings a statement that an antitheist believes in a deity but opposes the being in the manner of maltheism, but for various reasons the position that it would be bad or immoral for such a being to exist. All three match Hitchens' usage, not only a generally anti-religious belief and disbelief in a deity, but also opposition to a god's existence. The second is synonymous with strong atheism. The third and first, on the other hand, need not be atheistic at all.

Source: Antitheism

[The Grand Nudger]

You have beliefs, lots of people do.  They're strange, but that's okay because beliefs appear to be strange almost as a rule.  There seem to be plenty of atheists who aren't even passively opposed to theism.   Your beliefs about what people oppose do not seem to motivate others, or be representative of others.

I don't believe in Santa...........haven't held any anti-santa rallies of late, I don't spend much time with anti-santa outreach, or even thinking about santa. To say that I'm passively "against santa" would be absurd. If this helps, most folks are asantaists, most are not antisantaists.

[robvalue]

Sure, 10 would be crazy amounts of anti-theism.

[Aegon]

What about hating religion makes someone a good person?

Anyway, I'm an atheist but I'm not an anti-theist. I am not against religion unless it leads to very harmful practices (ex: Sharia law.) People saying grace before they eat and attending church every Sunday aren't harming anybody and I have no reason to oppose what makes them happy.

I'm not interested in having this same debate in two places at once. Perhaps someone else might tell you why religion is undesirable here, I'll continue this particular conversation with you where it first started.

Hm, it's a different question from my point of view. Also, address my other point: what's so bad about people saying grace before they eat and attending church every Sunday? What are they doing so wrong that I have to oppose that? Seems perfectly innocent to me.

[Excited Penguin]

Hm, it's a different question from my point of view.

How so?

Also, address my other point: what's so bad about people saying grace before they eat and attending church every Sunday? What are they doing so wrong that I have to oppose that? Seems perfectly innocent to me.

Well, first of all, it is liable to reinforce the morally bad and epistemologically inadequate beliefs associated with their religion.

Second of all, it's a waste of time. It doesn't serve any purpose.

Lastly, it's a despicable custom that makes one feel unnecessarily servile towards an imaginary entity, something which has probably not very good effects on the psyche.