False perceptions about Atheism and Agnosticism

[smax]

According to what atheist website?

From the University of Cambridge:

Atheist: "it stems from the Greek adjective atheos, deriving from the alpha privative a -,'without, not', and 'theos', 'God'"

I’ll need a reference because when I look up the term in the Greek it comes back as meaning “denying the gods”.

That's just a definition that suits your religion's agenda, and I'll make a case for that later in this response.

Also the English word atheism didn’t exist until the 16th century, at which point it was defined as someone to affirms the non-existence of God or gods.

I'll take this as a concession that the original meaning had been changed to fit the religious agenda. Again, I'll be making that case.

No, early Christians were called atheists because they affirmed the non-existence of the Greek and Roman gods.

That's your position. With that, are you conceding that you fit your own definition of an "Atheist"?

ἄθεος, (Θεός) (from Pindar down], without God, knowing and worshipping no God, in which sense Aelian v. h. 2, 31 declares ὅτι μηδείς τῶν βαρβάρων ἄθεος; in classic authors generally slighting the gods, impious, repudiating the gods recognized by the state, in which sense certain Greek philosophers, the Jews (Josephus, contra Apion 2, 14, 4), and subsequently Christians were called ἄθεοι (or Atheists) by the heathen (Justin, Apology 1, 13, etc.).

[quote]Absolutely no mention of “lack of belief”, that’s interesting.

Absolutely no mention of "Denial of existence", that's interesting.

I’ll stick to the way philosophers define the term.

You do whatever you want. It's your ignorance at stake.

The fact is, Christians today reject the term "Atheism" being applied to them in ANY capacity. In fact, William Lane Craig has rejected the notion that even his cat might be Atheist, which is an extremely silly thing to consider in the first place.

But this was not always the Christian position. Justin Martyr, in his letter to Augustus Caesar, embraced the term Atheism as someone who did not believe in the gods of the state.

"Hence are we called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity"

Now, why would he make such a concession if the term "Atheist" meant the "denial of the existence of god" in the general sense that you claim it does?

No matter how slice this, your definition is not consistent with the original meaning and perception of the term "Atheism".

Clearly Justin Martyr believed that Atheism did not rule out the possibility of god.

So why the dramatic change? Why do Christians now reject the term on ANY level?

Could it be that Rome's rather hostile takeover of the Christian faith changed many things about the religion and it's views?

Could it be that the same government that persecuted and killed many thousands of people for the crime of "Atheism" was no longer willing to consider Christianity a form of Atheism?

Like I said, the term "Atheism" has been villafied as part of the religious agenda. The mere fact that Christians reject the term "Atheism" as it applies to their position of non-belief regarding all other religions is proof of that.

So since the Greeks called Christians atheists, are you asserting that Christians are atheists? If the term really means lacking a belief in God or gods how can Christians be atheists? The term has always meant in the philosophical sense a positive belief in the non-existence of God or gods, it’s not my fault it’s not a defensible position.

Did you even read this non-sense before posting it?

The Greeks created the term, but they are wrong about it's definition, and were in error to apply the term to Christians?

That makes a lot of sense......



Get some sleep, dude, and try again tomorrow.