• Welcome to League Of Reason Forums! Please read the rules before posting.
    If you are willing and able please consider making a donation to help with site overheads.
    Donations can be made via here

Recent content by FelixChaser

  1. F

    What is Atheism?

    For those interested in a different perspective, you might enjoy this video: I agree with some aspects of it, and disagree with others, but thought it be worth sharing here, given its relevance to the topic.
  2. F

    What is Atheism?

    Thank goodness someone took the time to explain to you why the labels apply. ;)
  3. F

    What is Atheism?

    And I gave you the answer to that general question: "through the application of argument and evidence, discussion, study, etc," the same as in other domains and for other questions. If you want to talk about specific arguments, pieces of evidence, discussion points, and so on, then this isn't...
  4. F

    What is Atheism?

    I am not being obtuse; you are being vague to the point where I don't know what you are asking—hence my request for clarification. Now you've clarified that you are asking for evidence of deities. I have no idea why you are asking me this though. Given the nature of this forum, I presume you're...
  5. F

    What is Atheism?

    I completely disagree that it is "the common usage." Maybe in online and activist circles, yes; maybe even in the US. But whenever I have discussed anything related to religion in public, "in real life," the lack-of-belief usage has been virtually absent. This may be peculiar to the Australian...
  6. F

    What is Atheism?

    Fine, call it not an etymological argument then. I see no plausible way to argue what you argued without etymology, since your choice of examples relies on an understanding of the same meaning of a- being used throughout the history of those words, and your own source tells us that history. It...
  7. F

    What is Atheism?

    Evidence for what? What is it that you are asking evidence for? It's murky because it results in conflations between positions that we might want to distinguish. For instance, it conflates atheism with nontheism, a superordinate category that we might wish to divide up in different segments...
  8. F

    What is Atheism?

    Clarity largely. I find the "lack of belief" definition far too murky to be desirable for general use. The word atheist is fine if the question is about belief/disbelief. What anyone "claims to know" is irrelevant. It would be odd if every question about what someone believes regarding a...
  9. F

    What is Atheism?

    I did answer it. You don't get to an answer—any answer—without having beliefs about the answer. This is an incredibly trivial point—of course determining the answer will require explaining what one believes the answer to be, in addition to providing justification. But they can lack beliefs, as...
  10. F

    What is Atheism?

    Every answer is inevitably going to involve stating one's belief or disbelief in the answer. So, in a certain sense, no, you can't get to an answer without having beliefs about the answer. The issue then is not whether one has beliefs (that's a given), but whether they are justified, reasonable...
  11. F

    What is Atheism?

    The very link you provided in your post explaining a- indicated that it was a Greek-derived term and I don't see how saying that your were talking about words that inherited that prefix in our language is in any way a mischaracterisation—you were. Yes, my chosen excerpt is specific to the...
  12. F

    What is Atheism?

    In the context of a conversation regarding the existence of God, "agnosticism" is often used to denote a position that is exclusive, in the sense that it is neither atheist nor theist. The Routledge Dictionary of Philosophy (4th ed.), for example, defines an agnostic as one who "neither believes...
  13. F

    What is Atheism?

    Right here:
  14. F

    What is Atheism?

    I really don't see how that is not an etymological argument. The only way it even makes sense to compare across words in the way you have is to point to the shared etymology of the a-. Agnostics and innocents do not possess that belief either, and yet I would not classify them as atheists.
  15. F

    What is Atheism?

    If we are talking about their usage in language, then your previous post—comparing "atheism" to "acellular," "acephalic," and "anoxic"—doesn't make sense. The only thing those words have in common is the "a-." But if your argument isn't etymological, then that doesn't matter. I'm not sure I...
Back
Top