What the heck is ambiguous about "atheist"?

Answer 1

i dont know.. all i know is there is an ambiguously gay duo out there...

Answer 2

Obviously nothing but it's fun to see the believers desperately try and manufacture some ambiguity in order to have a dig at atheists.

Answer 3

There are actually several ways to define the "atheist." There are (1) implicit and (2) explicit, (2.A) weak and (2.B) strong versions, and (3) types that question the very meaningfulness of religious language and (4) pragmatist - postmodernist rejections.


1) Implicit: One who is un-aquanted with theism (e.g. babies are usually cited, also Buddhists).

2) Explicit: One who professes atheism.

2.A) Explicit/Weak: One who does not believe gods exists. This is the absence of belief.

2.B) Explicit/Strong: One who believes gods do not exist. This is the positive assertion of a universal negative.

3) Non-Cognitivist: One who believes "god" is a meaningless term because it has no predication (e.g. Logical Positivists). This would be considered weak atheism, also known as theological non-cognitivism or ignosticism. R&S regular Zero Cool is of this variety.

4) Pragmatist/Postmodern: One who believes the vocabulary and concepts of theism have lost their social utility. (e.g Stanford philosopher Richard Rorty)

Note: When Antony Flew was still an atheist, in The Presumption of Atheism (1984) he defined it closer to the Greek with "a" meaning "non-" as it does in amoral or asymmetry. Thus atheism is simply non-theism rather than a "rejection" of theism. This makes atheism the normative view and gives the burden to theism. It has a slightly different connotation which is closer to implicit atheism mentioned above.

Answer 4

I know an ambiguous atheist... But atheism isn't the ambiguous part.

Answer 5

LOL I'm ambiguous as to whether I'll have Rudy's tonight or something else ridiculously fattening, but I still don't believe in an omnipotent creator being.

_()_

Answer 6

Nothing at all. An atheist is an atheist, nothing ambiguous about that.

Answer 7

Christians have trouble understanding it because they don't think of themselves as Theists.

They don't understand that they are Theists, along with the Hindus and Ancient Greek followers of Zeus and Heracles, so they don't understand that Atheism is ANY system or philosophy NOT based on Theistic beliefs.

Just be happy if they can spell either word correctly.

I suggest the terminology 'Rationalist' and 'Irrationalist' be adopted. All non-theistic systems will be referred to as Rationalistic and all theistic systems will be referred to Irrationalistic.

Answer 8

Frankly there is nothing ambiguous about being Atheist.....

Answer 9

Who said it was ambiguous?

Answer 10

Nothing. "One who lacks belief in a god or gods" is perfectly straightforward.

However, religion (or faith, as they prefer to call it these days) is a con job, and a successful con depends on con-fusion -- that's why believers make up their own definitions of atheism and use that to con-fuse things. It doesn't work well on nonbelievers, but it's not intended for them anyway; it's aimed at the believers whose faith needs to be propped up by prop-aganda.

Answer 11

hah,
i love the ambiguously gay duo.


Ambiguouse means open to several possible meanings,

yeah that pretty much hits the nail on the head


am·big·u·ous /æmˈbɪgyuəs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[am-big-yoo-uhs] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective 1. open to or having several possible meanings or interpretations; equivocal: an ambiguous answer.