Definition of Atheism

[Mister Agenda]

So, this topic is a minefield. I was rather surprised that this even gets emotional at times.

Yes, who would have thought telling people they're not what they say they are no matter the objections they raise would be met with anything other than cool, dispassionate responses?

Okay, so right off the bat atheists are up against the usual usage of the word and a few other words. If you really don't think the average English speaker doesn't think "atheism" is what they use to refer to people who claim God doesn't exist, I suggest you talk to more people.

You seem to be emphasizing that you have no evidence to support your claim and that it is up to us to prove you wrong. I'm getting to the point where I wonder why I expect better from you.

And you all should know this already.

You should know what constitutes a good argument already, but you don't let that stop you from posting.

I mean how many times have you had to explain to theists that when you say "atheist", you just mean those who lack belief?

Occasionally.

If that wasn't what people usually mean by the word, you wouldn't have to explain that to theists, just like you don't have to explain to them what theists are.

People usually mean 'educated guess' when they say 'theory', and try to tell me 'evolution is only a theory'. Am I to bow to 'what people usually mean by the word' or explain why their statement is invalid?

And in fact, the usual definitions of atheism and theism are what those in academic philosophy, where people are being the most precise with their definitions, use them to mean.

Additional unsubstantiated claims don't make your original claim less unsubstantiated.

In the interest of your phone limitations, I will stop at this point, but it's also not true that you had to make your OP so long.

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Now, these are generally what people mean by these words:

-Theist: One who believes God/gods exists, to some degree

-Agnostic: One who views the question of the existence of gods either unknown or unknowable

So far, so good.

[quote='MindForgedManacle' pid='701034' dateline='1404461241']
-Atheist: One who believes gods don't exist, to some degree

Funny, that's not how most atheists define it.

-Belief: To accept a proposition as true

I believe that.

-Disbelieve: To affirm a proposition as false

Blatantly false. You've been given the dictionary defintion, so you can't be ignorant of this. There is no practical difference between saying you don't believe something and saying you disbelieve it.

There are good reasons we regard these words as meaning those things (or rather, we use those words to convey those concepts), as opposed to this lack of theism definition.

The reason YOU believe these words as meaning those things is your agenda to get everyone to agree with your definition.

Firstly, think about comparable situations. When someone asks you if you believe Santa Claus exists, it is absurdly obvious their question is exactly equivalent to saying "Do you think Santa exists or do you think he does not exist?" They are not asking you if you lack belief in Santa.

I see you avoided responses to this exact same argument in the other thread, so I'm not going to waste my time again. If you can refute objections to this particularly stupid argument, be honest and do it there instead of making us refute the same arguments repeatedly.

I'm going to stop here. You lack the most basic capacity for honest discourse in that you can't acknowledge any error on this topic, so you can't adjust your argument or position to accomodate new information, you've got your conclusion and all you care about is arguing for it, not whether it is actually reasonable. You're just repeating yourself because saying the same thing in different ways is all you've got. This topic isn't worth discussing with someone who is irrational about it.

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Anyway, that's all I've got to say. Let the witch hunt begin.

It's a troll hunt. There's a difference.