"The opposite of Believe is Deny"?

Question

I saw this interesting response to a question asking atheists why they do not believe in god (obviously not from an atheist). Is this necessarily true? Is the opposite of believing in God to deny God? Is the opposite of believing in the Flying Spaghetti Monster to deny the FSM? Is the opposite of believing in Allah to deny Allah? Do you have to go so far as to deny something that does not exist, or is failing to believe enough?

Thoughts?

Answer 1

i refuted that answerer in my answer, but yes, i agree with you...

Answer 2

I guess it depends on the connotations that "deny" carries with it. I could easily say that I deny that god exists. One could also say that deciding that belief is not warranted is denial of the belief.

In thinking about it I would say the opposite of belief is disbelief or not believing. Denying seems to mean carry a different connotation, more along the lines of knowing it is there but refusing to believe.

Answer 3

No, I also don't believe in some objects, laws or philosophies that I have never even heard of. How can I believe in something I haven't heard of? How can I deny them either? I have no knowledge of something, how can I deny it?

I don't deny a 'god', I just have no knowledge of one as a real, actual, omnipotent male spirit creator thang, but I don;t deny the existence of the Judaeo-Christian 'God' as a mythical projection of the patriarchal ego, or a kind of explain-all theological creation...

It's a trap, being told you 'deny' that which is not proven., when in actuality, how can you deny something that you have not seen or believed?

Answer 4

I do not think that the opposite to belief is denial. Denial indicates a belief, it may be a belief opposite to the one you hold, but it remains a belief. If you believe in God the opposite of that belief "in God" is not to belive in God. To deny God credits him with an existence that can be denied.

When Buddha was asked questions about the existence of the Gods his response was silence. That is the opposite of belief.

Answer 5

I agree, although "failing to believe" is not quite right, either. Eleventy has given a good answer.

In the majority of answers it seems that the opposite of Atheism is courtesy. I mean, why all the ridicule??

Answer 6

Fail to recognize, can't give support to, not believe, convinced to the contrary, deny... it all comes down to the same thing. Atheism says: There is no God or gods and that's the truth. If anyone wants to call that denying God - so what. That's just fine.

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Answer 7

for some things there is no opposite.

for instance the opposite of cycling is what ?

walking ?

Believing in something means not knowing for sure.

So the opposite of believing could be knowing for sure.

Answer 8

To me the opposite of belief is disbelief, which is much more benign than denial. It leaves open the idea that, while you may not believe it yourself, you acknowledge the fact that others may believe it. Which, when you think about it, is logical.

Answer 9

Well I guess I would deny faeries too, if anyone came up to me that seriously believed in them. I take denying as vocalizing my lack of belief.

Answer 10

A good point, but do you deny that my imaginary friend Rosco poops gold? You probably don't believe it, and you would probably deny it too. It is a generalization that sometimes fits and sometimes doesn't.

Answer 11

Sense 1:
believe

disbelieve, discredit