RE: No one is an atheist
April 14, 2011 at 4:02 am
(This post was last modified: April 14, 2011 at 4:05 am by Rayaan.)
(April 14, 2011 at 12:24 am)bliss Wrote: If atheism is simply a non-belief in God, then no one is an atheist.
Atheism is a non-belief in God indeed which means that you don't believe in God. So, whoever doesn't believe in the existence of God is an atheist by definition.
(April 14, 2011 at 12:24 am)bliss Wrote: I don't mean that "everyone believes in God, they just don't know it."
In other words, "Deep down inside, all atheists are theists, but they just don't know it." I think that's possible.
But now, an atheist can also say, "Deep down inside, all theists are atheists, but they just don't know it." I think that's also quite possible.
(April 14, 2011 at 12:24 am)bliss Wrote: I mean that atheism is an attribute of an ideology, but it isn't an identity in itself.
I'm not sure what you mean by atheism being an "attribute of an ideology" and not an "identity in itself." Maybe you should clarify.
However, just to stick it in here, one of my thoughts on atheism is that when a person says that he doesn't believe in God, he is not rejecting God, but only rejecting models (or concepts) of God which he has in his mind. Although it's true that he doesn't believe in God, he is only rejecting a particular conception of God whether it's a personal one, a deistic god, a god sitting on the cloud, or whatever he's thinking of.
