RE: Am I still an atheist if I believe in a higher being?
August 9, 2015 at 9:25 am
(This post was last modified: August 9, 2015 at 9:26 am by Homeless Nutter.)
(August 9, 2015 at 8:38 am)vixene Wrote: Again, thanks for the detailed response. I guess I'm back to being an atheist [emoji5]
You shouldn't worry too much about labels.
The rule of thumb I use is - when I'm in a mood to argue with theists, I tell them I'm an atheist, preferably "strong" - because that p*sses them off the most.
When I don't feel like arguing, or there are too many theists around to risk a fist-fight - I present myself as an agnostic, because religious people see that as a sort of capitulation ("Oh, so you don't know if god exists - that means I'm right no matter what.") and leave me be.
And calling yourself a deist almost guarantees they'll consider you as being on "their side", in a similar way they see members of competing theistic religions, as somehow confirming their own faith, through belief in any god at all (however flawed that line of reasoning is) - and being in opposition to atheism.
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw
