(October 28, 2011 at 12:41 pm)Rhythm Wrote: No worries bud, just offering a taste of the usual fare round these parts. The trouble with defining who or what an atheist is in one definition is that we have no holy texts from which to make these distinctions. Counterpoint that with theists, who despite having such texts still elude easy classification, not that they ever seem eager to correct their texts where their beliefs are different in even the slightest of ways. That would poison their own well.
"Without gods" seems to be the only thing that could be said of atheists at large. Those atheists, such as myself, who made no "conscious choice" to be so wouldn't really qualify as "unaffiliated".
(Except, of course, in this specific argument and as defined by you for the purposes of this argument, I get that.)
From the numerous religious texts from various religions that I have read there seems to be one underlying theme. This theme is the texts are fuzzy enough to leave plenty of room for interpretation. This room for interpretation is a functional thing for theists. It gives room to fuck people over and justify it by their interpretation of the religious text. On a kinder note it also gives room to change with the times i.e. to keep your religion relevant.
As for conscious choice it sounds like you have made a conscious choice, but I could be wrong about this. I don't know you after all. I on the other hand feel I can not illegitimately call myself an atheist because my god flag still rests on one final hill. The hill of all the supernatural experiences I have had over my lifetime. I can say that I believe that there are scientific/psychological explanations for these phenomena. in other words the phenomena have a provable cause. They just haven't been discovered yet. I have decided that its a safe assumption that someday soon my hill will erode to nothing or my flag will spontaneously combust. Until that time I have to come to terms with it. A process that will take time. I do not accept glossed over explanations. It might be safe to say that I fall in a gray area (perhaps it ought to be the what the fuck? area) between conscious choice to be a theist or a non theist. With me specifically, when it comes to supernatural phenomena, I know that I don't know what the fuck is going on. Other people who have not made any conscious choice for either theiest or nontheist don't know and/or don't care about what the fuck is going on.
I admit my word "unaffiliated" could leave too much room for interpretation. I haven't had time to come up with a proper word yet.
