"There's no such thing as an atheist"?

Question

Why do people say this? Are they just mocking atheists for saying there is no god or is there actual meaning behind this statement?

I meant "Why do SOME people say this?"

Answer 1

I think people are scared of atheists or anyone who doesn't believe in "god". It's hard for the human psyche to fa them that there is no single being watching out for them. The thought that there is no ultimate parental figure frightens them. I also don't think it's right for anyone to judge anyone else based on their "beliefs", there are so many it's impossible to say any particular one is the right one. I don't know if there is any actual structural belief system for being and atheist, maybe that's why or maybe they are just mocking the "belief". Live and let live that's my philosophy. Maybe we'll find out when we die or maybe we'll just be worm food.

Answer 2

there is no such thing as an atheist because it implies an "infinate" knowledge. For example, the word "theist" comes from the Greek "theos---or God" and the "a" infront of it is the negative.........negative god.....there is NO god.

So the term doesnt not imply "I dont belive there is a God" or say " I dont think there is a God" it AFFIRMS there is no God.But that is self-defeating. Any intro class to logic will tell you you cant affirm a negative statement. (think of it as me saying "there is no rock with white dots in the entire universe.......?....I would have to have infinate knowledge of the world to say that! By definition that would make me God).

Now with that being said, logically you cant be an atheist, so you would be agnostic---which is someone who says " I dont think there is a God" But agnosticism implys that you have done the reasearch and HONESTLY cannot come to a conclusion wheater or not God exist...

Answer 3

David Foster Wallace in a speech at Kenyon College:

"...H]ere's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship –- be it JC or Allah, bet it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. "

Answer 4

I think because to them God doesn't exist, so if God doesn't exist then there is no such thing as an atheist. There's no God to believe in for there to be atheist.

Answer 5

I think it's what some of them truly believe. I am an atheist, but I was raised religious and until my mid-20s really couldn't comprehend how anyone could NOT believe in god. I understand where they're coming from even though I now know they're wrong.

Answer 6

It's a common Christian Saying,

"There's no such thing as an atheist... Beacuse when He or She dies he or she will be and believe in God, when they are face to face with him"

Corney.. I know.

Answer 7

its impossible not to believe in God ...prove to me that you dont believe in God ...not just by words but by showing us an example that you absolutly do not believe in God..seeing how you cant prove to me that you do not believe in God then by by yuor own logic I must conclude that there is no such thing as a atheist


There is no such thing as a atheist

Answer 8

I think they are saying that because when terrible things happen they look to someone to blame or to beg for help, for most people that is God, so who does an Athiest blame? Not that any of it matters.

Answer 9

Because God has set eternity in the heart of man.

Answer 10

maybe because an atheist does not believe in any god or religion, and even to believe in no god or religion IS a religion in and of itself....it's called atheism.