Do you believe in God? Why/Why not?

[JWeinCom]

Runa216 said:
We're going on, what, 200 replies just about the definition and application of the terms 'atheist' and 'theist'?

What a profound waste of time; furthermore, it upsets me to see so many people arguing in favour of theism or religion being the default setting for a person's belief system instead of something taught and passed down through generations. It's also kinda pathetic to see people arguing unrelated points about HIV to liken it to theistic belief, and it's even worse to argue that a sandwich is atheist...

This is why I hate trying to debate online. Nothing of value is gained or lost, nobody cares about facts if they can twist things to suit their needs, and passion seems to matter more than reason. A shame, too.

 If you're not interested, don't participate.  Simple. 

Peh said:

JWeinCom said:

By my definition, atheist is a subset of the group "not a theist".  Not only would you be allowed to say you are not a theist, but every atheist would by definition also be not a theist.  You could accurately use either term if you wanted.  

Think of it like rectangles and squares.  All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.  All atheists are "not a theist" but not all "not a theists" are atheists.

I didn't use the term believe in, because that can have two different meanings.  That's why I specified believes in the existence of.  A person who accepts that some god exists, but would choose not to follow him or worship him would still be a theist.  

Ok, i see where you are coming from. You want to use "not a theist" as an umbrella term.

 

Well, it can work.

 Then that brings me back to the question I started with. 

We have two definitions we can potentially use for atheist. 

I believe that the way I've defined it is better because it excludes things we both agree we don't care about when we are talking about atheists. 

Wouldn't that make this a better definition?

Last edited by JWeinCom - on 16 September 2018