Proposal For A New Term

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

There seems to be quite a bit of thud and blunder on the board lately as to what is meant by (or does and doesn't fit) the term 'antitheist'.  Specifically, the word means 'active opposition to theism', but that seems odd.  A 'theist' is a person, so - pedantically speaking - an antitheist is a person opposed to theists.  This seems a bit harsh, as most of the theists of my acquaintance are perfectly lovely people, whose delusions don't seem to prevent them from being nice to have around.

I therefore propose that we call people who are actively engaged in opposing theism 'antitheismists'.  This term has several advantages:

1.  It indicates opposition to theism, rather than theists.

2.  Most of the loonies won't grasp what we're talking about when we use the word.

3.  It's cumbersome enough to give the impression that it's an old, established word.

4.  Fun to say, fun to spell.

Thank you.

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

Not you too Boru (fucking with us, right)? The "ist" in antitheist descibes a person who holds to antitheism.  Theism is not a person.  We can approach it in the reverse.  Theists, for example, aren't "people who believe in people, who believe in god" they are people who hold to theism.

We could use a similar term to describe the absurdity.  Atheist.  A theist is a person...so is an atheist a person who doesn't believe in theists?

Ists hold isms. There's no need to alter an easily understood and well structured suffix set just because people cant speaka da engrish. Those people are going to find a way to "misunderstand" regardless of what new terms we use in place of those already in service and well suited.

[robvalue]

Religion-is-dumb-and-or-harmful-ist?

[ignoramus]

Why not anti religious? Stupid, I know...sorry.

[Thumpalumpacus]

There seems to be quite a bit of thud and blunder on the board lately as to what is meant by (or does and doesn't fit) the term 'antitheist'.  Specifically, the word means 'active opposition to theism', but that seems odd.  A 'theist' is a person, so - pedantically speaking - an antitheist is a person opposed to theists.  This seems a bit harsh, as most of the theists of my acquaintance are perfectly lovely people, whose delusions don't seem to prevent them from being nice to have around.

I therefore propose that we call people who are actively engaged in opposing theism 'antitheismists'.  This term has several advantages:

1.  It indicates opposition to theism, rather than theists.

2.  Most of the loonies won't grasp what we're talking about when we use the word.

3.  It's cumbersome enough to give the impression that it's an old, established word.

4.  Fun to say, fun to spell.

Thank you.

Boru

You forgot 5. Very useful for mental masturbation.

[robvalue]

Why not anti religious?   Stupid, I know...sorry.

I think this would be more accurate in most cases, yeah. People don't generally have a big problem with a vague deistic belief that goes no further.

[SteelCurtain]

I like it.

While not necessary for those who know what antitheism actually means, it could be a term for the people who are too stupid and need to be hit in the face with the nuance.

BZ, Boru.

[robvalue]

What do we call people who are nominally against antitheism but don't care enough about it to do anything? Antidisestablishmentarianism? I always wondered what that meant.

[Aoi Magi]

Disadvantages of "antitheismist":
1) That term sounds more like a tongue-twister than an actual word
2) When I use a term like this, I am trying to spend LESS time explaining my position to the loonies. A term like this would require me to spend MORE time explaining the term itself.
3) Even after explaining, no real religiotards are gonna bother trying to understanding it, and with logical/sensible people I won't really need the term, thus making it useless.
4) It might be fun to say once or twice, but will get annoying in longer conversations.

[The Grand Nudger]

We could call ourselves Borus.........  It's shorter and snazzier than antitheismist.