Why is there a word for atheism? Atheism is simply lack of belief right?

Question

Like I was just reading today, there are people who believe that Elvis is still alive. Most people don't. But there isn't a special "word" for people who "practice" not believing that Elvis is alive.

So I don't really see how you can "practice" atheism. Isn't that the natural state and everyone else gets a name for making a effot to deter from that?

Am I being confusing?

Answer 1

Nobody "practises" atheism. The answer is in your own question - it's a matter of scale. Believers in Elvis are not a rich, large-scale, intrusive and lobbying body of people - atheists have a name because they define themselves against a very dominant group.

Answer 2

Wrong! You have to believe to be an atheist. The atheist believes that there is no God. The atheist is busy justifing his or her position as are all humans.

Dealing with any subject the questions who, what, when, where and why always come up. Who is God, what is God, etc.

Deism: God created the world but takes no part in
its functioning. God on permanent leave.
Pantheism: Literally, its all God. You worship the
whole thing or all the gods.
Theism: God exists in and apart from His creation.

To the question: Is there a God? The general answers are yes, maybe and no. Those who say yes call themselves by many names depending on their theology. The maybes often call themselves agnostic, but agnostic is technically the position that God is impossible to prove.

Finally we come to the atheist which in Greek would translate Without God. Most who use the word take an anti-theist position because that covers all the bases.

If atheism was, as you say, simply lack of belief we would probably never hear from them.

Answer 3

Not exactly. Atheists do believe in something; it's just that part of their beliefs include that there is no god.

And no, it is not the natural state. The more natural state would be agnostic -- one who does not know if there is a god, or does not know about God.

Both these words are constructed from the positive primitives: 'theist' (one who believes in a god) and 'gnosis' (one who knows). And the words simply negated by the prefix 'a', meaning 'not'.

Now if there were a word for those who believed that Elvis (elvisist, maybe) is alive, the word for those who don't would simply follow the same construction rules, a- (aelvisist, or something like that).

Was that clear?

Answer 4

We should have a word for everything, if we are to be able to discuss theoretical matters. Atheism is also a belief system—that there is no God. There is no proof for that belief system either. It is in fact, a religion—the only one that can presently be openly supported by our government. You can practice atheism by being adamantly opposed to all other beliefs as the Crusades were against the Muslims. Atheists believe that their belief is the true one..

Answer 5

I don't think people are born with an innate sense that "God does not exist". This is because people are not born with an innate sense of what "God" is. So denying God's existence is not a 'natural' state any more than not being a Marxist is a natural state. Both theism and atheism require acculturation: as, for that matter, does the conviction that Elvis is dead. Now, you may think that it is logical and reasonable to believe that God does not exist, but this is presumably an opinion you have come to independently, and the majority of the world's people disagree with you. They have reached a contrary conclusion. How you define yourself is not terribly important, but the idea that your condition is the obvious or 'natural' one is fallacious.

Answer 6

The***PRAYNOGRAPHER***Will speak to this elimentary questions with a simple thought. once upon a time most uneducated morons believed that the world was flat,but just because they all believed it. Didn't make it so, did it ! Even after the morons tried to do away with those that would prove them wrong. No matter how hard they worked to make all believe as the morons did. Truth, and reality will always rise to the top above ignorance, and wishful,but blind faith. A faith that always led to mans demise. It is not that god created man in his image. It is that man created god in his own image, and uses this imaginary god to use as a power to unite those that would believe in this created god as power over others. 0 Tolerance+0 Thinking=0Freedom.The ***PRAYNOGRAPHER***has given you food for thought. Please be sure to chew it well before you swallow it. For the xristians,morons, and republicans, chew is a metaphor for think ! Oh I left out Hypocrites,which is most of the religious minds on this great planet of ours,All men are born of equality, not just xristian Americans. The***PRAYNOGRAPHER***is of free will,and thought. He does not buy into a god,but if he did . He would say the god has damned America,because of what it has done to keep most of the human beings that share this Earth in poverty. Most so called Xristian Americans treat animals far better then their fellow man.god is a cruel joke, and jesus is the puch line!

Answer 7

So by the rational then Christians don't need a name because people that think Elvis is still alive don't have a name. Unless you count "The Crazies" as a name.

Answer 8

I se what you're getting at, but considering that like 90% of the people in the world believe in some god or other, not believing is important enough to merit a word. Especially when, in the past, you could be tortured and killed for it. Not many non-Elvis people are killed for their belief.

You have to consider western history where the church for CENTURIES basically ran everything.

Answer 9

We all know that we exist materially in this dimension, in this universe, in this galaxy, in this solar system, in this planet, in this body. Through science we can explain the material nature of matter and the mind. This is where Atheism resides. The Atheist cannot explain the force of matter and the emotion of the mind. God is the force and the emotion. Love is the 5th element and mother nature is the cure for all illness. Only Faith can cure a Broken Heart.

Answer 10

Actually I'm a Non-Garbage-collector. For now, I think it is more of a tool than a valid word. Scott Adams makes beautiful use of the word in his blog:
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/11/atheists_the_ne.html

Religion causes such division of humans that most don't realize it's negative effects because to think that way is considered a sin. When that division becomes common knowledge, then maybe we can work on getting rid of it all together. Then we really can move forward as a human race united!!!