(October 12, 2009 at 8:15 am)rjh4 Wrote: First: Nice catch! Second, I agree that you have not claimed there is absolutely no god in this post and will take you at your word regarding all other places. I guess I was confused by the fact that you refer to yourself as an atheist as I thought an atheist was one who believes there is absolutely no god. If you would like to shed some light on this relative to what you do think in this regard I would be interested.The word "atheism" stems from the greek 'a' (without) 'theos' (gods), literally meaning "without gods". Anyone without gods can be reasonably called an atheist. Today the general interpretation is one who does not believe (disbelieves) in the existence of gods.
Note that to disbelieve in something requires no positive belief or assertion, neither does it require knowledge or a lack of knowledge.
I am an agnostic atheist, I do not claim to know whether gods exist or not absolutely, but I still don't believe in them.
This is very different from gnostic atheism (or "strong" atheism), which is where someone states that they actively believe there are no gods, and in some cases will say that the non-existence of gods is a known fact. I dispute this entirely.
