The meaning of Atheism.

[leveni]

Hey fellow atheists.......I think?

A bit about myself.
Up until I was in year 8 of high school, the thought of god had never entered my mind. I would have been about 12 or 13 when all the students in the school were divided up, placed into rooms with total strangers, who then started questioning us about god. When the question of "where we came from" was asked, I put my hand up and said "my parents had sex and my dads sperm entered my mums egg I came out a baby" Everybody laughed, including the Christians. The Christian said that is not what he meant. One then asked: where did the first man and woman come from. I had little knowledge of evolution also but at that time I thought we came from monkeys, so I said "we come from monkeys", everybody laughed louder. And so did the Christians.

They asked everybody to settle down and listen, because they had a story to tell us. And so the indoctrination began.

For me, after about 365 x 12 = 4380 days of having zero contemplation of god to suddenly have been ask to believe these stories was unbelievable. After the class, one of my friends asked me if I believed in god. I said no, and what the Christians said was the biggest load of B*LL SH*T I had ever heard in my life. My friend then told me I was an Atheist. I asked what an Atheist was and he explained it to me. He said an atheist is somebody who doesn't believe in god. I asked him if he believed in god. He said "yes". He then said "There is a god but you just don't believe in him". I found this insulting. I looked up the word Atheist in the dictionary and found that it came from Greek. 'A' meaning no. 'theist' meaning god. I agreed NO GOD. For me atheism has always meant 'NO GOD'. It had nothing to do with belief. It was a fact.

Recently while surfing the net, I found an atheist web site and thought I'd enter for a bit of fun to see what was happening. But I was shocked by the stance they took. Their position was not absolute. They had blended 'science' with atheism and said there is no credible evidence for the existence of god. They did not believe in god but they also did not deny gods existence. Suddenly I was thrust back to that day at school. And I fought them over the meaning of the word Atheist. They mockingly asked me if I knew what a dictionary was and they told me to look the word up. At first I didn't, but later I did. And yes, the dictionary mentioned the word "believe", much to my regret. I have since been banned from their web site.

Rather than cause any more disturbances on the internet I have decided not discuss the topic but rather ask a question:
What does atheism mean? I want to poll the question. for example:

What does atheism mean?
1.I don't believe in god because there is no credible evidence for his existence.
2.There is no god, there never has been, there never will be.
3.....

I'm not looking for a right or wrong answer, I'm just wondering what does atheism mean to you. If you have any answers that are different from the above please tell me. But I want to limit the number of answers to about 3 to 5 maximum. But more if necessary.

Please add an answer if you think it necessary.

Thanks for listening.

I intend to post all results on youtube at the end.

[Shell B]

Well, while many people might say that there are different interpretations of the word atheist, that's just baloney. Atheist=don't believe in god(s). It is really that simple.

Because atheism is such a simple concept, people have a hard time understanding it. Shouldn't belief systems have more to them? Well, atheism isn't a belief system. You can not believe in god(s) for any reason and be an atheist. I might not believe in god because I have no reason to believe in god, while another person doesn't believe in god because their dog told them that god isn't real. I can believe leprechauns are real, but god(s) do not exist. I am still an atheist. I could think that there is a ton of evidence for god, but that evidence is misleading, so I don't believe in god(s). Guess what? I would still be an atheist.

In short, you are seeking an answer that is more complicated than the truth. Until you accept the simplicity of what atheism is, you will continue to be confused by it, like so many others.

Oh, and there is only one answer, so your youtubeage will be short, if you want it to be correct.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

What an odd coincidence.


This sounds like a Leveni on Australian Atheist forum.Even though restricted to Fantasy Island, he still managed to get himself banned. I think Admin are ready to let him back,over some strong objections.

If anyone is interested in other points of view, I invite you to go to the link below and have a little look at Fantasy Island; "Leveni's corner of the Island"

I make no comment either way,make up your own mind.


http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/forums/

[Shell B]

Well, it's an awfully big coincidence, if it ain't the guy.

[everythingafter]

Hey fellow atheists.......I think?

I'm not looking for a right or wrong answer, I'm just wondering what does atheism mean to you. If you have any answers that are different from the above please tell me. But I want to limit the number of answers to about 3 to 5 maximum. But more if necessary.

It means simply to disbelieve in gods, all gods. To be an atheist, as folks have graciously asserted to me on here, isn't to say that we know with 100 percent certainty that there are no gods (I'm not sure anyone will say they know this, for sure, ever.) But it is to assert that we do not believe or think it reasonable to believe that such deities exist. But that, in and of itself, is not a belief. For, not to believe in Apollo or Jesus or Yahweh is an unbelief and can not be attributed to faith.

[Entropist]

If you were to ask me what being an "atheist" means, it simply means I simply have no belief in the existence any gods (and by extension, no belief in anything "supernatural"). That's it, end of story.

What follows from an individual's atheism will vary from one person to the next, but this has nothing to do with atheism per se, but rather philosophical views that are, in part, atheistic: existentialists, communists, nihilists, objectivists, certain Buddhists and secular humanists may all be atheists, but their ideological views are all very different. In many cases, the only thing these different ideologies have in common is a lack of belief in gods, and that is all.

If someone says to you "Hi, I'm an atheist," they haven't told you much about themselves at all. Only when they state something more specific, like "I am an avid reader of Ayn Rand" or "I belong to the x Humanist Association" or "I am a member of the Communist Party" will you have some clearer idea of where they are coming from.

Atheism itself doesn't mean a whole lot. But it makes certain philosophical ideologies available that couldn't otherwise exist from a theistic standpoint.

[Existentialist]

The question is not what does atheist mean. That is putting the cart before horse.

The question is, there a three fundamental human stances in relation to the existence of God, and we need to invent new words for them because the existing words are causing a lot of argument. What are they? The three stances are:

1. Believes there is no God
2. Doesn't believe there is no God but doesn't believe there is a God either
3. Believes there is a God

Please could we have some suggestions for 1, 2 and 3 and then we can move forward without the baggage that accompanies words that have evolved with conflicting usage.

[Ace Otana]

What does atheism mean?
1.I don't believe in god because there is no credible evidence for his existence.
2.There is no god, there never has been, there never will be.
3.....

Atheism is lack of belief in god's existance in the most basic sense. That is all.

1.I don't believe in god because there is no credible evidence for his existence.

Agnostic atheist. One who admits to not know weather a god exists or not(agnostic) and lacks belief in it(atheist).

2.There is no god, there never has been, there never will be.

Gnostic atheist. One who claims to know there is no god(gnostic).

Agnostic atheists make no claim of any kind and so it's not a belief.

Gnostic atheists claim there is no god and so it is a belief.

That's it. That's atheism. People tend to be atheist through various reasons, the most common reason happens to be lack of evidence.

So if someone says they are an atheist, it simply means that they do not believe in the existance of god(s).

[Existentialist]

it simply means I simply have no belief

Atheist=don't believe in god(s). It is really that simple.

It means simply to disbelieve

it simply means that they do not believe

When somebody feels the need to add a statement like "simply" and "simple" to any definition, it tends to suggest that it is not quite as simple as is being suggested, otherwise the simplicity would be self-evident and the statement would be unnecessary. Am I being ungenerous? It could of course mean that the matter is very simple. The question is, do I believe the people when they claim they see it as simple? I cannot help feeling it is simple in the same way that a bottle top screwed down on a pressurised liquid is simple. It hides terrible potential beneath. It has the feel of the lady doth protest too much. Methinks.

[Tiberius]

1. Believes there is no God

Strong Atheist

2. Doesn't believe there is no God but doesn't believe there is a God either

Weak Atheist / Agnostic Atheist

3. Believes there is a God

Theist

I don't see what is wrong with these suggestions. It should be pointed out that "strong atheist" does not necessarily equate "gnostic atheist". You can believe there is no God and still be agnostic about that belief.

I don't believe that these are the only 3 positions you can have. I believe that the main set of positions can be represented by 5 generalised ones: http://atheistforums.org/thread-3817.html