(July 6, 2012 at 2:22 pm)CliveStaples Wrote: Now, it seems to me that Atheism is also a big umbrella; it includes secular humanism, nihilism, naturalism, etc. The common property is that every belief system in Atheism fails to include the belief, "At least one god exists".
Which makes sense from a macro point of view, too; under this view, Atheism is the complement of Theism. It includes everything that isn't in theism--i.e., every belief system that lacks theistic belief.
based on what you said here, atheism, in my personal opinion, doesn't complement theism unless you're saying that theists believe everything considered under your umbrella except for the non-belief of an all-powerful god. i know that sentence was fucked up syntactically. the reason being atheists have only that one common denominator. so if we were bringing everything else to the table to provide a true complement, then fine - but no one is saying that. as a term, it only brings one thought to the table.
they can land a rover on mars, yet they still have to stick a human finger up my ass to do a prostate exam?! - ricky gervais