Why Carl Sagan rejected atheism

[Ben Davis]

I don't understand why 'atheist' has to boil down to one concrete definition.

Hi Tori,

It doesn't, necessarily. Most people are happy to agree the useful definitions of the word at the beginning of a discussion. The key point is the 'default assumption' of the word. Using your analogy, the vast majority of people use the word 'gay' to mean 'homosexual' therefore that is the the default assumption; when people vary from that common use, they usually provide context or explanation which makes their usage clear. The battle is to change the default assumption of 'atheism' to 'an absence of theism' (the strictest, most elegant & etymologically precise definition) in order to counter the misinformed, bias-ladened usage which is most common amongst the religious. Those who regularly tout 'a denial of god/s' as the definition are one of the biggest barriers to mainstream acceptance of atheism and feed institutionalised bigotry.