RE: Accepting/Rejecting "Atheism" as a label.
January 29, 2013 at 5:08 pm
(This post was last modified: January 29, 2013 at 5:22 pm by NonStampCollector.)
I dislike the label, and this thread has served as a convenient illustration for why I dislike it. There is far too much confusion and disagreement about what atheism means.
I personally subscribe to the etymological definition, with it roots in the Greek "atheos":
-'a' meaning 'without'
-'theos' meaning 'a god'
Apply the same idea to the modern word theism (belief in a deity) and you get the etymological definition of atheism: lacking belief in a deity. That reflects my viewpoint perfectly. I don't unequivocally state that there is no god, because that would place a burden of proof on myself that I'm not interested in assuming. I simply lack belief in any god because there is currently no objective evidence to do so.
If everyone agreed on that meaning of the word, then I would be OK being labeled as such.
I personally subscribe to the etymological definition, with it roots in the Greek "atheos":
-'a' meaning 'without'
-'theos' meaning 'a god'
Apply the same idea to the modern word theism (belief in a deity) and you get the etymological definition of atheism: lacking belief in a deity. That reflects my viewpoint perfectly. I don't unequivocally state that there is no god, because that would place a burden of proof on myself that I'm not interested in assuming. I simply lack belief in any god because there is currently no objective evidence to do so.
If everyone agreed on that meaning of the word, then I would be OK being labeled as such.
