(October 28, 2011 at 12:15 pm)Rhythm Wrote: "Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist."
"The term atheism originated from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without god""
See how proposing the idea of a "conscious choice" would muddy the waters? It would exclude myself, just as a single example. Atheism does mean that a person has no belief in god, but it makes no determinations about how one arrived at the point, conscious choice or otherwise.
Apologist mode on- "See, you have actively rejected god, prophecy is fulfilled! Hail Jesus!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism
I was trying to narrow the definition of athiest to someone who does not believe in god or follow a religion. I needed to do this to distinguish this from someone who has not made this conscious choice...an unaffiliated person. Narrowing the definition eliminates chiding from theists who point the finger at you and say "hee hee you really do believe in God because in order to hate god you must believe in him. You are so illogical, gosh you are stupid......blah blah blah". Generally speaking I have never known anyone who has made a conscious choice not to believe in a supreme being or follow a religion hate God. It is illogical. They put blame for shit that happens to them where it lies. I have seen plenty of people who have not made the conscious choice to not believe or follow a religion hate god. Yes I am putting a blame on them. My disclaimer is that I don't hate unaffiliated people who have not made conscious choice to believe or not to believe...I after all fall within this category to some degree. I am just pointing out that specifically atheists, as I have been defining them, are not acting illogically with regards to god as their accusers say. They are innocent of this accusation. I went further to give what I think is a possible theory as to the probable cause for the confusion.
