Atheism and morality

[Inigo]

I am not a theist. I use the term 'theist' to refer to someone who believes in the existence of a creator god who is omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly morally good. THe god I believe in is NONE of those things.

I've been with you all the way here Inigo, but on this point I must depart.

"the god I believe in" is a god you believe in.

This far you have only asserted a possibility, one you were undecided upon. Has your position changed?

I believe in a fully moral, omnipotent omniscient God. Amongst other things, that makes me a Christian theist. Someone who believes in God -plus some refinements on that, as categorised widely and publicly as Christianity.

Just like the term atheism, theism is the position on deity. Nothing more. On those grounds, ones commonly accepted here on this forum, you are a theist.

Then we must part company on an irrelevant semantic issue. I, in common with, among others, professor Robin Le Poidevin use the term 'theist' to refer to what I have just said I use it to refer to.

I do this a) becusae this is how the term has been traditionally used. Some have only started using it more generally in order to make sense of 'a-theism'. that's all. After all, atheism is generally used to refer to the view that no god, of any kind, exists (not just the theistic god).

But anyway, I use the term 'theism' in its traditional sense because that's what I've always understood the term to mean, that's what it means in the philosophical community (see Prof Robin Le Poidevin for clarification) and furthermore I wish to distinguish myself from those who defend the Judaeo Christian god. And if you say you are a theist most people who were properly educated will believe you believe in the Judaeo Christian god or something damn similar. I don't.

Anyway, these are tedious semantic issues of no relevance to the credibility of the case I am making. It does not alter the validity of any argument I have made. All one has to do when I use the term 'theist' is remember that I use it in its traditional sense.

In fact, it doesn't matter what terms I use for anything. They're just labels. Some people here are more concerned with what to label themselves than anything else.