RE: Can you persuade me from Agnostic to Atheist?
May 25, 2016 at 11:55 am
(This post was last modified: May 25, 2016 at 11:55 am by Whateverist.)
(May 25, 2016 at 8:32 am)Ben Davis Wrote:(May 24, 2016 at 12:50 pm)wiploc Wrote:
So that's the reason and dictionary support for my position.
That's fair enough but it seems that dictionary.com has attempted to conflate all the usages of antitheism in to a single definition. There are fuller ones available (eg. OED, Websters) but the basis is this:
Theistic position: There is/are a god/s
A-theistic position: Absence of belief in a god/s
Anti-theistic position: There is/are no god/s
That's where I'm coming from but I acknowledge the definition you listed as an accurate one.
Modern usage has Antitheism encompassing opposition to religious practices and religions themselves even though not all religions are theistic. It's a broad word so there's value in understanding all usages.
For me to adopt the antitheist stance that there are no gods I would first need to know what is meant by the word "god". If that is something out there and eternal with total causal control over everything and the decider supreme over moral matters .. then that is just ridiculous. But some theists hold more nuanced notions and I'm not ready to say they are wrong. So I'm just a garden variety atheist holding no belief in any god I've heard described, but not ready to render a categorical pronouncement based on so little.