Frank wrote on Oct 31^st, 2023 at 6:55pm:


If you want to play language semantics, technically the "thing" it lacks is the belief.

But of course you can lack shoes, even if you don't know what shoes are.

You don't know what you don't know.

What once can't do is deny something they don't already know, this is true.

Humanity lacked belief in Scientology before 1950 when it hadn't been made up.

If there was a word for that, you could use that word to describe those people.

You can indeed lack something, even an idea, without knowing what it is.

But you can't deny the idea, you can't refute or refuse to believe it without first knowing it.

That's the difference.

But atheism by definition is the lack of a belief in God or gods.  The lack of belief can come from being ignorant to the existence of a god or gods, or an active rejection based on personal criteria.

So a rock, if it were self-aware and capable of thought, could be an atheist.

A baby or child before being introduced to the idea of God or gods, unless they've made up the concept themselves can lack a belief in a God or gods, and would therefore be an Atheist.

I think you're getting caught up in the label given to someone who lacks a belief in a god or gods because it has "theist" in the name.

If you just said a baby lacks a belief in a god or gods, surely that's not a controversial statement, even if they're not yet capable of belief?

SadKangaroo wrote on Oct 31^st, 2023 at 8:17pm:

Then in your lexicon, atheism is meaningless - even the dead are atheists according to your definition.

Why would you expend time and effort arguing for a word's redundancy?

It is kind of meaningless yeah, all it is, is a lack of belief in something.

It's just a word, it doesn't have the same significance as someone claiming to be Christian or Jewish to an atheist.

SadKangaroo wrote on Oct 31^st, 2023 at 9:41pm:

Have you met anyone who characterised their atheism in those meaningless terms?

Even you didn't. You explained your atheism arising as a result of bullying religious teachers who put you off religion and god for life.

Zombies are real. Just look at all the drug addicts around, like George Floyd was - a braindead Zombie.
Heaps of Ghouls too, moaning and groaning for their alcohol.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Oct 31^st, 2023 at 8:30pm:



No. The dead are inanimate. They cannot hold a position on anything. Unless they're vampires.

But atheist, a noun, simply means a lack of belief in a god or gods.

It's a noun.

I'm not entirely sure if you lot are agitating for verb or adjective ... you seem confused. But nobody needs anything in opposition to be an atheist. It is the default position of every species born that can comprehend the basics. You don't need to actively say "oh there is no god" (verb)  to be found at square one. Atheism.

Theism is taught. Or perhaps perceived. But atheism is the noun we're all born with.

Jasin wrote on Nov 1^st, 2023 at 6:55am:


'k

mothra wrote on Nov 1^st, 2023 at 6:52am:

What's the relationship between nouns, verbs and adjectives?

Given we're born without any ideations other than instincts, it's meaningless to say we're born atheists.

And, given our temporal lobes are predisposed to intuiting what is not immediately obvious via our senses, if anything, we're born predisposed to theism, not atheism.