RE: Why do atheists hate God?: An article Dissection
October 28, 2011 at 12:12 pm
(This post was last modified: October 28, 2011 at 12:14 pm by Ziploc Surprise.)
(October 28, 2011 at 11:42 am)Rhythm Wrote: There may be more than those two conditions (and more nuance within the two you decided to take up), and your assessment of what atheism is or means may not be accurate.
I don't have space to address all the nuances so I just knocked out the big ones. As for the definition of the word Atheist I prefer the bare bones definition. It avoids confusion. I have defined An atheist as someone who has made a conscious choice not to believe in a supernatural being or follow a religion. Most dictionaries support this definition though they don't always parse out religion from supernatural being. How atheists live and make decisions based on these beliefs is another thing. Its what they tack onto the label. For example a car can be defined very basically by it's few functional members -for example an engine, 4 wheels and an enclosed or partially enclosed cabin for a driver. The color of the car, the amenities, add ons, and decals are not essential to the definition of car. They are an expression of how someone wants their personal car to be. The underlying structure, the underlying threads of what a car is are the same. In the same way the definition of an atheist as supported by various dictionaries, can differ from what it means personally to be an atheist. It can also be independent from any political movement. for example if there's a political atheist movement who's aim is to eliminate religion, you personally can be an atheist who also believes that religion ought to be wiped out or you can be an atheist who also believes that theists and non theists can live together in peace. Both are athiests they differ on whether they ought to extrovert or introvert their beliefs.
To analyse a thing it's useful to find it's underlying structure and build up from there. This avoids confusion with extraneous variables.
