Margaret Atwood claims atheism is a religion

[Thumpalumpacus]

Godfuckingdamnit, I hate it when people spell it Santa Clause. The "e" ain't there on the proper name, fucking Christ.

Nothing personal, TJ, just a pet fucking peeve.

[robvalue]

Kitan: Well, you're assuming that when anyone on the street asks me about God, they are implying that we both refer to "the agreed philosophical meaning". The fact is, most people cannot adequately define what God is when questioned, nor would they probably be aware of exactly what philosophers have agreed.

People do say the universe is God, for example, and this is also an accepted "theology".

[Foxaèr]

Well, you're assuming that when anyone on the street asks you that question, they are implying that you both agree to "the agreed philosophical meaning". The fact is, most people cannot adequately define what God is when questioned.

Most people are not aware of the implied philosophical definition.  That is the problem.  They only know what they learned from indoctrination.

[robvalue]

It's a word, words can have many definitions. Philosophers don't get to claim a word.

To be sure that is what they mean, I'd have to ask them if they mean that. That is the reality. In general, people don't know themselves what they are asking me.

If we couple the question with the philosophical definition, then sure. All is well. But this very topic is all about people having conversations without a clue what the agreed definitions are, probably 75% of people don't know the proper definition of atheism.

So I guess you could say the philosophical question "of God", with an implied definition, is different than the Joe Blogs "Do you believe in God".

[Foxaèr]

o.o

I am thinking that is a form of word salad.

[Thumpalumpacus]

o.o

I am thinking that is a form of word salad.

Even the one word, "God", is word salad when it is left so vague that any chef cutting on any countertop can sneak in any ingredient he likes.

Rob's point is cogent.  God, like happiness, is something a lot of people talk about while never knowing exactly what they themselves mean.

[robvalue]

Well, this is all rather silly, I agree.

I could rephrase by simply saying that for a significant proportion of the people asking me this question, they cannot adequately define their own word.

I could assume that the person does understand their own question, and knows some basic philosophy, and agrees with the standard definition... but statistically, I'd be assuming wrong at least some of the time.

Thanks Parker Listen to any theist on this forum try to define God; indeed, it's word salad itself.

[Edits all over this and previous posts ]

I think we have reached some common ground, hopefully

[bennyboy]

Godfuckingdamnit, I hate it when people spell it Santa Clause. The "e" ain't there on the proper name, fucking Christ.

Nothing personal, TJ, just a pet fucking peeve.

When did you become such an irrascible rouge?

[Pizza]

Philosophers of religion don't agree. People like WLC prefer an anthropomorphic("personal") god, while other reject that preferring negative theology instead.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Godfuckingdamnit, I hate it when people spell it Santa Clause. The "e" ain't there on the proper name, fucking Christ.

Nothing personal, TJ, just a pet fucking peeve.

When did you become such an irrascible rouge?

I am not makeup!

Oh, you meant rogue.