(November 2, 2021 at 1:55 pm)Ahriman Wrote:(November 2, 2021 at 1:51 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: You have that exactly backwards.
The term skepticism encompasses the disbelief in all supernatural claims.
Disbelief in: Gods, ESP, ghosts, Tarot card reading, spiritual surgery, etc, etc, all fall under the umbrella of skepticism.
The disbelief in gods is a special form of skepticism that gets it's own category and definition.
Why? That's stupid, and makes me think atheists just want to be part of some secret club.
It wasn't us atheists that came up with the term, it was ancient Romans.
In fact, Rome used the term 'atheist' to describe Christians, because they did not believe in the correct gods.
But you are correct, for a change, the term 'atheist' does not really need to exist. After all, there is no special term for the disbelief in Bigfoot.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
