JWeinCom said:
VGPolyglot said:
The difference being that an apple is a state of being, something that is composed in a specific matter in a specific way. On the other hand, atheism specifically refers to beliefs, thus you need to have a certain belief in order to be one. I don't understand your second paragraph, I assume you mean to say that an atheist is someone who believes that God doesn't exist, rather than does exist? I don't have a belief that narrowly defined myself, as mean deities in general. Obviously it's impossible to know every single deity, but if you are actively aware of the deity/deities, and aware that the non-belief of the deity/deities exists, then you can be an atheist if you choose to not believe in the deity/deities. So, he may be an atheist in that he doesn't believe in the deities that he's aware of, but you still can't say he rejects Yahweh if he is not even aware of him. Yes, he may not believe in Yahweh, but not believing in something is not the same as rejecting something. I consider atheism to be the rejection of the existence, as I said before calling a baby an atheist doesn't really do anything to advance the debate.
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Apple and atheist are both labels that we give to things that have certain properties. If the thing has that properties that fit the label, then that's what it is.
I meant is not someone who does not believe got exists, which is an important distinction from someone who believes god doesn't exist. I refer to a specific god in this case, because depending on the god you propose, I may or may not call myself an atheist.
I'm aware that the baby doesn't reject yahweh, and that's the point I was trying to make. That there is a difference between rejecting (which is active) and not accepting (which is passive). Most (pretty much all that I've seen) atheists define atheist as someone who does not accept that a deity exists.
I think it does advance the debate, because you need to agree to the terms beforehand, so we don't wind up with the same argument about what atheist means like we did 50 fucking times in this thread. Once you agree, then you could move on to something of more substance.
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You have to be aware of a deity to accept it though? Isn't rejection the opposite of acceptance? I agree that there needs to be clear terms beforehand, but how are we going to determine which definition to use? By the one that has more people that agree to it?
