What is the name for modern atheists?

[LostLocke]

They're gonna kick you out of the theist clubhouse, you keep it up. 

I built my own.  All are welcome.  

The only thing I can contribute is my set of polyhedron dice and some AD&D books.
Sorry, but I don't step foot in a clubhouse without them...

[Kingpin]

I built my own.  All are welcome.  

The only thing I can contribute is my set of polyhedron dice and some AD&D books.
Sorry, but I don't step foot in a clubhouse without them...  

It's been years, but man I loved playing some pen and paper D&D back in the day.

[RoadRunner79]

[quote='lkingpinl' pid='1070073' dateline='1443807013']
Bambi,

I appreciate you asking the question, I think it's a good one.  What I find is that unlike religious ideologies where there are core beliefs and subsequent beliefs which delineates the sect of the core belief, Atheism spouses one belief and one only:  There is no God or Gods.  Out of that there are no subsequent beliefs.  Evolution is separate and there are atheists who accept evolution and atheists who think it has serious issues, but it has nothing to do with their atheism.  I honestly think Atheist has no sect, nor needs one.  They are not espousing a belief in anything requiring sub-categorization, they are only espousing a single statement about a specific topic.  No God.  

At best, you will get agnostic atheist or gnostic atheist.  There are some that are not comfortable with the logic of making a definitive statement about something unknowable, others are fine with it.

You have selected one of the two common definitions of "atheism," but you have selected the one that is not the most popular here.  I have started a thread about this before; here is the first post from it:

There seems to be quite a lot of time wasted on the question of the meaning of the term "atheism."  I think I can explain why people talk past each other on this.  Quite simply, there is more than one standard meaning of the English term "atheism."

Take a look at:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/atheism?s=t

There you will see (unless, of course, they change it between when I quote it and when you look at it):

atheism
noun
1.  the doctrine or belief that there is no God.
2.  disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.


Notice, the two common and proper definitions are not the same.  They are, as is common with words, related in their meaning, but they are not the same.

People commonly insist that the word "atheism" means one of these, but the simple fact is, in English, either meaning is right and proper.  Notice, one of these is a lack of belief, and the other is a belief.


So, when someone uses the term with one of these meanings, and you want to use the other, the best thing to do is to explain which of the standard meanings you intend.  It is of no use to tell people that they are wrong to use a term in accordance with a standard meaning of the term; being a standard meaning, they are right to use it in accordance with that meaning, but one is wrong to insist it must mean only one of the standard meanings of the term.

The same idea applies to other words.  Most words have more than one meaning in a dictionary, and it is ridiculous to believe that everyone else uses one and only one of the meanings contained therein.  If there were only one right meaning of the term, there would only be one definition in standard dictionaries.

Sometimes, with the word "atheism," both senses are given as if they were one definition in a dictionary.  As in this case:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/atheism

a·the·ism

 (ā′thē-ĭz′əm)
n.
Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.


Notice, in this case, two different ideas are presented as if they were one definition, and not two separate and distinct ideas.  Still, if you pay attention, "disbelief" and "denial" are not the same thing.  One is not believing something, and the other is believing that something is false.  One is a lack of belief, and the other is a belief.

Excellent post, and I have noticed that some also equivocate the two. Sometimes I think it's because they are simply ignorant of what you have espoused here, other times it seems like a tactic to wiggle out from a corner. In either case, I think this is good for most people to keep in mind, and to not get angry, if someone assumes the other definition.

[houseofcantor]

Excellent post, and I have noticed that some also equivocate the two. Sometimes I think it's because they are simply ignorant of what you have espoused here, other times it seems like a tactic to wiggle out from a corner.  In either case, I think this is good for most people to keep in mind, and to not get angry, if someone assumes the other definition.

No one's getting angry at kingpin, he's too adorable.

[Kingpin]

[Simon Moon]

Bambi,

I appreciate you asking the question, I think it's a good one.  What I find is that unlike religious ideologies where there are core beliefs and subsequent beliefs which delineates the sect of the core belief, Atheism spouses one belief and one only:  There is no God or Gods.  Out of that there are no subsequent beliefs.

Excuse me if I don't join the universal praise others are giving this post by lkingpinl.

Atheism is not necessarily the belief there is no god or gods. It is more accurately the disbelief in the existence of a god or gods. 

These statements may sound the same, or may even sound like I am splitting hairs, but when it comes to these kinds of discussions, it is best to use formal and accurate definitions. 

The difference between the 2 statements above, is where the negation is placed. 

As in (where "!" is the negation):

The belief there are !gods.

As compared to:

The !belief that there are gods.

[robvalue]

Yes, that is indeed correct. They're informally known as weak and strong atheism.

Being an atheist tells you nothing else about a person, so looking for categories is kind of pointless. It's just like asking what kind of people there are.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

I think Kingpin got it right. And I appreciate that he put the effort into it. Atheism is a very generic concept, in that we simply reject all the stories of gods told by people. Some go an extra step and say there cannot be gods, and are still atheists, but are what are called "strong" atheists, or even anti-theists. Just as "theist" is generically a belief in a god or gods, but has almost infinite varieties of expression, atheist has no other connotations besides "I think there are no gods".

Some of us like to use the popular expression, "I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." -Stephen F. Roberts

I am a Secular Humanist, which is a type of atheistic belief-structure almost akin to a godless religion, though I don't consider it a religious belief per se. If you want to know what that is, check out http://secularhumanism.org (website).

[Whateverist]

I kinda like 'apostate' since I did consider myself Catholic for a time.

That won't work for me.  Reminds me of a problematic part of my anatomy.

But there are other categories to be considered besides "do you believe in god(s)" - atheism and "are you certain that gods do or don't exist.  In addition to being atheist and agnostic, I am also ignostic since I find the 'god(s)' in question poorly defined.  I'll also cop to being apatheist since the questions concerning whatever these god things may be doesn't really interest me.  (That said, I can admit to finding the question "why has god belief been so prevalent for so long" very interesting.)

So there are at least four god questions the answers to which can help to classify atheists.  They are:

Do you believe in god(s)?
Are you certain whether they exist?
Do you know what we are even talking about when the G word comes up?
Do you care whether or not gods exist?

[KevinM1]

I kinda like 'apostate' since I did consider myself Catholic for a time.

That won't work for me.  Reminds me of a problematic part of my anatomy.

But there are other categories to be considered besides "do you believe in god(s)" - atheism and "are you certain that gods do or don't exist.  In addition to being atheist and agnostic, I am also ignostic since I find the 'god(s)' in question poorly defined.  I'll also cop to being apatheist since the questions concerning whatever these god things may be doesn't really interest me.  (That said, I can admit to finding the question "why has god belief been so prevalent for so long" very interesting.)

So there are at least four god questions the answers to which can help to classify atheists.  They are:

Do you believe in god(s)?
Are you certain whether they exist?
Do you know what we are even talking about when the G word comes up?
Do you care whether or not gods exist?

Yeah, I more or less the same.

No
No
Vaguely
No