[ExI] atheism

[moulton at moulton.com]

On Sun, 2009-12-13 at 14:02 +0100, Mirco Romanato wrote:

> Last time I checked "Atheist" was someone that negate the existance of 
> any god.
 
Exactly when and where was the last time you checked because if you had checked this email list you would have found that there are two common definitions of the term atheist.  In fact in the email you quoted was this:

<<Atheism can be either the rejection of theism,[1] or the position that 
> deities do not exist.[2] In the broadest sense, it is the absence of 
> belief in the existence of deities.[3]>>
 
It should be pointed out that the definition of atheism as the absence of belief in the existence of deities is not new.  Consider the statement of Baron d'Holbach who is reported to have said in 1772 that "All children are born Atheists; they have no idea of God."   And in more recent times my friend George H. Smith has written extensively on this topic in various books and essays.  Just google George H. Smith and atheism and you will get the references.  The definition of atheism as  "absence of belief" is in my opinion and the opinion of majority of atheists that I know personally the best type of definition to use.

Consider this organization of which I am a member: American Atheists.  What do they say?   
    Atheism is a lack of belief in gods, from the original
    Greek meaning of "without gods." That is it. There is
    nothing more to it. If someone wrote a book titled
    "Atheism Defined," it would only be one sentence long.
That quote is from their webpage:
http://www.atheists.org/atheism/About_Atheism
which I strongly urge people read before they continue to post message on the topic of atheism.  The webpage discusses the definition of atheism as well as explains why atheism is not a religion.

Now people can disagree and have other definitions but they need to know that these other definitions have serious philosophical problems and are thus falling out of usage.

Fred