Beginner's Guide to Atheism.

[Huggy Bear]

Huggy's right in that 'ism' denotes a system.  That system is theism.  The prefix 'a' is negation.  So, 'atheism' literally means 'not-theism' just like 'amoral' means 'not-moral' in the sense of being not connected to/involved with those things rather than in a pejorative sense (which would be 'antitheism' and 'immoral' respectively).

No dummy, 'atheism' (a = without, theos = god, ism = system) literally means a 'system without god'. A theist can believe a god exists without being religious, but theism is a system based around a belief in god also known as religion. If an atheist is one who simply holds no beliefs in a god, then atheism is a system based on the non-belief of gods... Got it?

Atheist religions exist, this is fact.

That being the case, under which category would an atheist religion be filed, theism or atheism?

Aside: moments like these are why my calls for certain people to go back to school are 100% serious.

It seems you should be the first volunteer...

[Amarok]

Huggy the dumbass thinks that because atheism has an ism at the end it makes it a system or doctrine. 

Is metabolism a doctrine or system i think not

Is anachronism a doctrine or belief i think not 

The ism suffix in the case of atheism is about an attribute or state . In this case a lack of belief in a certain proposition . 

And no it's not a claim it's the lack of acceptance of a claim . Not a claim itself .

[Whateverist]

Advice to the new atheist: don't throw out your bible! It makes perfectly good kindling.

[KevinM1]

To be fair, a metabolism is a biological system.

That said, atheism isn't 'system (of belief) without a god', but rather 'without the system (of belief) pertaining to god'. Which is why the definition of atheism is 'disbelief or lack of belief in god or gods'.

With disbelief being: 'inability or refusal to accept that something is true or real'.

We're unable to accept that god is real. It's not a conscious choice, but one stemming from the (lack) of credible evidence regarding the claim being made.

[Whateverist]

To be fair, a metabolism is a biological system.

That said, atheism isn't 'system (of belief) without a god', but rather 'without the system (of belief) pertaining to god'.  Which is why the definition of atheism is 'disbelief or lack of belief in god or gods'.

With disbelief being: 'inability or refusal to accept that something is true or real'.

We're unable to accept that god is real.  It's not a conscious choice, but one stemming from the (lack) of credible evidence regarding the claim being made.

Forget it Kevin.  There is no way you'll convince Huggy his circle doesn't represent at least half the data, rather than just being one amongst many circles.  We see a world full of people, some of whom are Christians, some of whom have other theist inclinations and others like ourselves who don't.  He just sees two circles: "us" and "them".  (We're them.)

[KevinM1]

To be fair, a metabolism is a biological system.

That said, atheism isn't 'system (of belief) without a god', but rather 'without the system (of belief) pertaining to god'.  Which is why the definition of atheism is 'disbelief or lack of belief in god or gods'.

With disbelief being: 'inability or refusal to accept that something is true or real'.

We're unable to accept that god is real.  It's not a conscious choice, but one stemming from the (lack) of credible evidence regarding the claim being made.

Forget it Kevin.  There is no way you'll convince Huggy his circle doesn't represent at least half the data, rather than just being one amongst many circles.  We see a world full of people, some of whom are Christians, some of whom have other theist inclinations and others like ourselves who don't.  He just sees two circles: "us" and "them".  (We're them.)

I'm just tired of theists trying to tell us that atheism is somehow a religion in and of itself.

Then again, I make a distinction between theism and religion because religions aren't just a particular set of beliefs about god/gods, but also come with a bunch of rites, rituals, and other things that allow one to practice their faith through action.

For example, the Eucharist isn't just an idea, but an actual ritual. And it's the performance of the ritual that gives it its meaning and power. Atheism, and all other 'isms', for that manner, don't have codified behavior simply because they pertain to one's belief or lack thereof. There's no particular set of racist rituals, or sexist rites of passage.

[The Grand Nudger]

Advice to the new atheist:  don't throw out your bible!  It makes perfectly good kindling.

They're treated with flame retardant chemicals as a matter of base process..because if there's anything that the religious -are- good at doing..it's making useful things entirely less useful. 

[Whateverist]

Damn!

[KevinM1]

EDIT: boo, the GIF wasn't linkable

[Huggy Bear]

Atheism, and all other 'isms', for that manner, don't have codified behavior simply because they pertain to one's belief or lack thereof.  There's no particular set of racist rituals, or sexist rites of passage.

*emphasis mine*


Really?



Racism IS systematic. You do realize that systems have been put in place to enforce racist ideologies, right?

Apartheid, Segregation, and Jim Crow, to name a few, were all what exactly if not racist systems?

For instance this is why we say black people can't practice racism, we have no system in place to enforce any racist ideology.