Atheism's Definition - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

[Mister Agenda]

How is albinism defined? Not all 'isms' are ideologies. An 'ism' can be a condition. Theism is the condition of believing in at least one god or God. Atheism is the condition of not believing in at least one god or God.

Isn't albinism a medical condition? It's not a philosophical position or a view.

Neither is atheism. It is the state of not having a belief in any deities being real.

If you want to define atheism as a medical condition, be my guest. But the mentally sick are not usually taken seriously.

Theism is the state of having a belief that at least one deity is real. If you want to go the route that correctly describing it as a state of belief instead of a philosophy is the same as calling it a mental illness, whatever floats your boat.

This shows the hoops you jump through when you try so desperately to redefine atheism.

It shows my grasp of the English language.

Why not just accept that philosophical or intellectual views are one type of -ism, medical conditions are another. And all philosophical/intellectual views about reality are characterized by what they affirm.

I do accept that. I should have anticipated that you would fixate on albinism being a medical condition and be unable to conceive of any other examples of 'isms' that aren't philosophies or medical conditions on your own. I chose albinism because it's an example of an 'ism' defined by a lack of something. My apologies for not foreseeing your predictable difficulties. Having been in conversations with people who can't imagine a use for 'half-a-wing' in a world with dozens of gliding species, I'm well aware of the collapse of imagination characteristic of people who are committed to arriving at a particular conclusion rather than thinking about it, so I've no excuse.

Here are some more 'isms' that are neither medical conditions nor philosophies: absenteeism, antagonism, aphorism, atonalism. baptism, bilingualism, electromagnetism, exorcism, galvanism, lyricism, magnetism, malapropism, mannerism, mechanism, mesmerism, microorganism, neologism, organism, photojournalism, plagiarism, spoonerism, syllogism, tourism, truism, vandalism, voltaism, vulcanism, and witticism.

I hope these examples help you grasp that noting that a word ends in 'ism' isn't a sufficient reason on which to base a conclusion that it is either a medical condition or a philosophy.

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I know you feel like you know everything about this, but I think it's unlikely that you do. If you just read the OP, it makes it clear that the definition of atheism being used is a new invention. It just isn't the proper definition.

Atheist writers have been using the word 'atheism' in the sense that we are describing for centuries.

I mean, you can call yourself whatever you like, but if all you do is disbelieve, to the real world you're just an agnostic.

And you're so concerned about that because why? It's our lookout, isn't it?