(May 2, 2014 at 7:53 pm)Napoléon Wrote:(May 2, 2014 at 12:09 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: Sure it is. If you believe God doesn't exist, you're an atheist. It's just that people who would say that don't comprise the majority of atheists.
I believe that there are no fairies.
I do not believe in fairies.
Do these two sentences mean the same thing? I'm confused now, I've always thought atheism was explicitly lack of belief. Applying a belief to this would make calling a-anything impossible. I thought atheism literally meant a(without) theism. I suppose you can believe there are no gods and still be atheist, but I hate that anyone would use that description.
Maybe I'm just hung up on semantics.
No worries. Atheism has more than one sense. Lack of belief is the inclusive sense that encompasses all atheists. 'Believing not' is the less inclusive sense that only applies to strong atheists. Someone who 'believes not' doesn't 'believe so' either.
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.
