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Athiests start religious wars, too!

The Central Scrutinizer said:
Either (A) you're right and Webster is wrong, or (B) Webster is right and you're wrong. No offense, but I think I have to go with Webster.
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Disbelief in something is the same as belief in its converse. What you imagine to be a conflict between Webster and me is not.
 
Foster Zygote said:
If I return a verdict of 'not guilty' in a trial because I have seen no evidence to warrant a conviction, but still acknowledge the possibility of the defendant's guilt, is that a belief?
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Yes, it's a belief: not in the innocence of the person in question, but in the status of evidence against him.
 
cosmicaug said:
I don't even know what a believer is thinking about when they think about a god (only they do) so I am not thinking about it therefore I am not an atheist?
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I have no idea whether or not you're an atheist. You haven't provided me with the information needed to make such a determination. But it's quite easy to figure out, if you provide an answer to the following question:

Do you believe that no god exists?

If the answer is yes, then you're an atheist. If the answer is no, then you're not an atheist. Quite simple, really. And it hinges upon your belief, which you haven't told me. So I can't answer your question.
 
angrysoba said:
In fact, philosophy has traditionally treated a claim of knowledge to be a justified true belief. That is, to say that you know something requires that you believe it too.
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Robrob said:
Sliiiiiiiiiightly different than calling it a religion though.
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Foster Zygote said:
But one needn't claim to know with epistemological certainty that gods don't exist in order to be an atheist.
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I probably should have quoted the post I was responding to which is this one:

The Central Scrutinizer said:
No. Atheism is absence of belief.

An atheist doesn't believe there is no god(s); an atheist knows there is no god(s).
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I hope that clears up the confusion.
 
An atheist is simply one that doesn't have a belief in god. That does not translate into knowing there is no god.
 
RandFan said:
An atheist is simply one that doesn't have a belief in god. That does not translate into knowing there is no god.
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Then what distinguishes an atheist from an agnostic? An agnostic doesn't have a belief in god, but atheism is not synonymous with agnosticism. So clearly that is insufficient to describe an atheist.
 
Ziggurat said:
Then what distinguishes an atheist from an agnostic?
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They are answers to different questions. They are not mutally exclusive positions.

An atheist lacks a belief in a god. An agnostic lacks knowledge of a god.
 
RandFan said:
  • Stalin didn't commit atrocities because he was an atheist.
  • Stalin didn't commit atrocities in the name of atheism.
  • There is nothing about not believing in god that leads to atrocity. One cannot say the same about theism.
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Tally up the number of non-believers who started a war over the different variations of non-belief or plotting to kill people because they didn't share their non-belief.
 
angrysoba said:
In fact, philosophy has traditionally treated a claim of knowledge to be a justified true belief. That is, to say that you know something requires that you believe it too.
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Perhaps.

But I don't believe in evolution. I accept the scientific findings that support evolution.

Perhaps that is why most Philosophy majors are familiar with the McDonaldsian theory of "would you like fries with that?".
 
Ziggurat said:
Disbelief in something is the same as belief in its converse. What you imagine to be a conflict between Webster and me is not.
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Either (A) you're right and Webster is wrong, or (B) Webster is right and you're wrong. No offense, but I think I have to go with Webster.
 
Out of curiousity, how many wars have actually be started purely over religion. I'm not talking about leaders who have used religion and the whole "God is on our side," and "We're doing this for God!" messages to convince their followers to fight, but wars that are really about one group going to war with another because they had a different reliegion and nothing else.
 
RandFan said:
  • Stalin didn't commit atrocities because he was an atheist.
  • Stalin didn't commit atrocities in the name of atheism.
  • There is nothing about not believing in god that leads to atrocity. One cannot say the same about theism.
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Umm really?

Soooo no one in the Soviet Union during Stalins time was ever persecuted for holding religious beliefs?
 
Ziggurat said:
Atheism is most definitively and explicitly a belief. It doesn't have any associated hierarchy and not much in the way of dogma, so may you can argue that it's not a belief system, but it is by its very definition a belief.



Sure it can. But that's not the question, the question is has it done so on any large scale. So far it doesn't appear to have. But on an individual level? You'd be a fool to discount it categorically.
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For 70% of the atheist, it is a disbelief, the absence of a belief, just like being bald is a hair color, or "not collecting stamp" is a hobbis. Natrually tehre are the 30% roughly which are gnostic atheist "there is no god" one could see that as a belief. But for the majority of atheist ? Not a belief at all.
 
Ziggurat said:
Then what distinguishes an atheist from an agnostic? An agnostic doesn't have a belief in god, but atheism is not synonymous with agnosticism. So clearly that is insufficient to describe an atheist.
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Absolute piffle. Have you never heard of an agnostic theist?

What a sheltered religious life you must have led.
 
RandFan said:
  • Stalin didn't commit atrocities because he was an atheist.
  • Stalin didn't commit atrocities in the name of atheism.
  • There is nothing about not believing in god that leads to atrocity. One cannot say the same about theism.
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Have you copyrighted this yet?
 
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