On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 1:41 PM, LizR <[email protected]> wrote: > On 20 October 2014 04:23, Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> On Thursday, October 16, 2014, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: >> > And to believe that something does not exist, you need a precise >> version of it. >> > >> > No, you just need a definite version. The god I don't believe in is >> the god of theism, which, as I've written many times, is a person who >> created the universe and cares about how we behave and wants to be >> worshipped. >> >> So then do you believe in one that doesn't want to be worshipped? What >> about one that doesn't want to be worshipped or care how we behave? Or one >> that doesn't want to be worshipped, doesn't care how we behave and isn't a >> person? >> > > I think Brent is saying that he DISbelieves in the god he described above. > With the others he's probably in a state of non-belief, where he doesn't > actually believe X exists but is prepared to be convinced otherwise if > convincing evidence came along. That state is called atheism for the first > ("theistic") case,, and agnosticism for all the others. (I am personally > agnostic on all gods.) > > I know Brent likes to read a lot into the theism/deism distinction when he says he is atheist, but the word "atheist" predates <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=atheist>the rise of deism <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism>. Both theo- and deo- mean the same thing, it's just that theo- is of Greek origin and deo- of Latin origin, so I tend towards the more conventional definition <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/atheism>of the term: Disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods.
When someone says that they are atheist, I generally take that to mean there is no god they believe exists. Since Brent had to specify the additional properties "wants to be worshipped" and "cares how we behave", I must wonder if those are necessary qualifiers, or if he could have been more general and simply said "He doesn't believe in a person who created the universe", which would have conveyed more information than a similar statement but with additional descriptive qualifiers. Jason -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
