Atheism -"no nod," "religion has no validity," either or neither?

[emilynghiem]

Got into a small debate with someone over atheism, thought i'd come here for some advice:

I said i'm an atheist. He responds and said he could never be one because atheism says there is absolutely no god and nothing created the universe. I disagreed with that definition and said that I'm pretty sure the only absolute claim that atheism makes is that Religion has no validity, no credibility in any sort of cosmological debate, that relition is made-up and the gods of those religions are made-up. As for cosmology, I said, most atheists leave that question to science.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this argument. Should i not have argued and accepted his definition of atheism? Was I wrong in my definition? Does such a claim warrant a correction? Or were we both splitting hairs?

Dear dreamsofpotato
atheism has as many different approaches as any other label.
Constitutionalists don't agree on what is or is not Constitutional, left and right.
Christians don't agree on what is or not Christian about homosexuality, hell, salvation, etc.

if you need clarification look up the Dawkins scale
and find a way to explain your beliefs that YOU are comfortable with
you may or may not match what other people call atheist, agnostic, etc.

there are as many people who will attest I am Christian
as those who say no way can I be that and am going to hell.
nobody's ways are going to be completely consistent
so you need to find what works for you where you can describe as best you can.

may I suggest that if you are simply not into a personified God and Jesus
to call this nontheist which is neutral. Nontheist can include Buddhists who
believe in God or not, or call God by other impersonal names such as Wisdom, Life,
Nature, Universe or universal laws/truth, etc.

You can call yourself secular gentile which also includes any range of belief or not.

I find those are common terms, that are more neutral objective and inclusive.

And then if people change their minds or question any other thing about the meanings of God Jesus or religions, that still makes us secular gentile in how we think in objective scientific terms.

I am more "nontheistic" in my views of God and open to any and all representations of God that includes secular terms and science of energy and how thoughts are energy and relate to matter and actions in terms of energy. that is still how life works so to me it is still the same as part of God's laws about the world we live in.