AnthonyGiarrusso
Member
What makes somebody atheist and not a theist?
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Think? Think what? Think how?The capacity to think
Rationally.Think? Think what? Think how?![]()
What makes somebody atheist and not a theist?
Best reply, yet. Mine is now second best.The letter 'a'.
*nods sagely*
It's not really a lack as suchThe theist believes in, professes faith in and often has a codified system around a faith in a god or group of gods.
The atheist lacks any of that.
I guess that's correct to,the extent that beingDepends upon a person's conception of "god".
The real mindless responses are people who think that atheism or theism have anything meaningful to do with intelligence or rational thinking.
I also distinguish between "informed atheists" and "ignorant atheists", the later often been labelled "lacktheists".@Heyo recently made a distinction between "atheism" and "Atheism" which I approve quite a bit of.
There is nothing that makes someone an atheist, it's the default condition, you are born with it.What makes somebody atheist and not a theist?
Those are strong qualifications, thank you for adding them.I also distinguish between "informed atheists" and "ignorant atheists", the later often been labelled "lacktheists".
The definition of "doesn't believe in any gods = atheist" is OK as a simple classification but it is appropriating and inflating the numbers when it's more than that like adding them to the atheist movement. (A stone is an "atheist" but it doesn't move.)
I guess that is why many refuse the label "atheist" even when it fits. The co-notation goes beyond the definition.
My chosen philosophy is Agnosticism but I'm also an atheist by definition. The former says much more about me than the later.
A lack of faith?What makes somebody atheist and not a theist?
What makes somebody atheist and not a theist?
I was a good little monotheist at one time. Then I was an atheist for a little while. Then I learned about joining the gods (dark side).I was an atheist from the beginning because I found any consideration of God a useless waste of time and utterly unimportant. When God came into my life that naturally changed. So for me, nothing made me an atheist when I was young. God changed my mind.
The capacity to think
For theism? Possibly believing in several hundreds or thousand pages of text as being 'as presented', and hence as to whatever concept of God or similar comes from such. Perhaps some come to be a theist by other means but mostly it is the major religions that provide the basis for this - and usually coming early on, so more an indoctrination into such - given that children rarely have any control over what is taught to them.What makes somebody atheist and not a theist?
Short answer: absence of belief in the literal existence of any deities.What makes somebody atheist and not a theist?