Clarifying atheism and anti-theism.

Have I mentiened how awesome you are? What a lovely clarification. I think there are a lot of people who need to hear it. If I have to hear one more word about "Those atheists who hate theists" I'm going to scream. And I'm neither atheist nor anti-theist. Thanks for adding some intelligence to Mylot.

I can't get the definition of anti-theism in any dictionary. Where did you get it, anyway? I) Mirriam Webster's dictionary says: Please see at http://www.mirriamwebster.com/dictionary/atheism Atheism is 1) Ungodliness, Wickedness 2a) A disbelief in the existence of deity 2b) The doctrine that there is no diety II) The Free Dictionary also mentions the same thing: Please see at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/atheism 1a) Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods 1b) The doctrine that there is no God or gods 2) Godlessness, immorality

I agree with your definition of the term atheist, but technically an "anti-theist" would be someone who is "against those who believe in God" (not that I've ever heard of anyone referring to him or herself that way). Although I'm an atheist myself, I don't take exception to people thinking I believe affirmatively that there is NO god. I virtually DO hold that belief, even though I realize that the non-existence of God can't be proven. I'm more concerned with people holding the mistaken view that atheists are all AGAINST god, and have some kind of moral deficit as a result.

I wonder where you got this idea from. Can you tell me where you quoted it from? Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Edwards) gave various definitions. I thought atheism is affirmation of an absolute negative. As far as I know in 'atheism' is made up of two words 'a' and 'theo' where 'a' is negative (not without) and 'theo' is God. Agnostic is made up of 'a' and 'ginosko' where 'a' is negative and 'ginosko' is knowledge. Atheist like Michael Martin may say like you said, but classical atheists will say' there is no God'. And there is redefinition because, I think, 'there is no God' is logically self defeating. I would like to hear where from you quoted your definitions.

I agree, although I term these things differently. I refer to the assertion that there is no god (as a fact) as explicit atheism, while stating that god exists as a fact is explicit theism. Agnostic or broad atheism and theism are referring to the lack of belief or belief in a god, respectively. Both of these admit that belief is not fact, and recognize it through some level of tolerance towards other viewpoints. I wrote a full article on this topic a while back, here: http://www.helium.com/tm/196152 Draven the Respectful Atheist http://dravenwriter.blogspot.com

I agree with the definitions and wish that more people took the time to understand this. There are so many misconceptions about atheists that it can really cause problems. Mention the word atheist and some people think or associate it with the devil. Strange how people think sometimes.

Perfect description. I wish those terms became the norm, because right now it's very common to see even atheists getting the terms mixed up and misrepresenting what they believe. I'd also add, just for the sake of completion, the definition of Agnosticism: "Agnostic" is simply someone who doesn't believe that it's possible to prove the existance or inexistance of god. One can be religious AND agnostic, or atheist/anti-theist and agnostic.

my opinion