What is Atheism?

[masterofpuppets]

You can define atheism however you want. You may even call it a worldview, which is something I would reject. The point is, that doesn't actually change what atheists think.

What you can't do is define atheism, and then claim that "he said he's an atheist, atheism is xyz and therefore he believes in xyz". This is the problem with theists. Instead of ASKING atheists what they believe in, they TELL atheists what they believe in, in order to dumb down the atheist position, and try to force a burden of proof onto them. This is an invalid move, because atheism concerns what is NOT believed, not what is.

If most people who claim to be atheists do so because they lack a belief in gods, then would it not make sense to define atheism as such? Besides, the word "atheist" in English technically means "not a theist". Theism is defined as the belief in gods (or more specifically, a god that intervenes with the universe, as opposed to deism).

It astonishes me that there can be so much disagreement on such a simple word with a well-accepted definition.