I am just curious to see what the answers are to gauge how people understand atheism.
2007-11-14 11:15:47 · 37 answers · asked by Don't Fear the Reaper 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Obviously, by nonbelief, i mean in terms of religion, not like, if the 86 mets were a great baseball team or if the war in Iraq was justified. This the religion and spirituality section after all.
2007-11-14 11:19:58 · update #1
Non-believers is a Christian term, it has nothing to do with most religions. It is only Christianity that condemns "non-believers" to eternal torment.
I am definitely a non-believer. I am a Jew-by-choice.
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2007-11-14 12:30:40 · answer #1 · answered by Hatikvah 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No, they are very different. There are two different understandings of atheism. In popular culture the word atheist is used to describe anyone who doesn't believe in a god. Technically - it just refers to a non theist. So really one can be an atheist and devoutly religious - just not a part of a 'theistic' religion (Hinduism, Budhism, Taoism etc...). Theism is just a specific way of defining God.
Non-belief goes along with the popular understanding of atheism - in fact PBS recently showed a three part series on a history of non-belief that is really well done - transcripts are available online - google a history of non belief. It's really good - even if you are a believer - because it helps us all stop defining people by what they don't believe and start just undertanding what people specifically do believe and why.
2007-11-14 11:26:34 · answer #2 · answered by Can'tBYY 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Disbelief in the existence of a deity is the definition of Atheism. I don't think that "non belief" is a synonym for "atheism" though. That is like saying Atheist believe in nothing, in every aspect of their lives. The words non belief (or disbelief) don't specify religion or anything else and the only thing atheists specifically have in common is the disbelief in deities; anything beyond that is speculation. So, no, it's not synonymous.
2007-11-14 11:19:03 · answer #3 · answered by I, Sapient 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well, a non-believer to me could be someone that just doesn't believe in religion as an institution for reverence to a higher being. They could still believe in something, but maybe it's not defined by anyone/anything. Atheists do have beliefs: they firmly believe there is no higher supreme, spiritual being. I think the terminology is open for interpretation, but this is how I see it!
2007-11-14 11:19:40 · answer #4 · answered by Gigi 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
"atheist:Someone who belives god doesnt exist"
Wrong! An atheist has no belief in the existence of gods, that is not the same as believing they don't exist. That is all an atheist is, someone who does not believe in gods. Many atheists do have beliefs in other things and there are even atheistic religions like Buddhism which has beliefs but no gods.
A person who believes in nothing is a nihilist.
2007-11-14 11:22:32 · answer #5 · answered by tentofield 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You could be agnostic and not believe in God.
Technically, agnosticism means that you don't believe anything without proof, though you'd change your mind if you had proof.
As there's no proof that God exists (beyond anecdotal evidence, which isn't scientific), agnostics probably wouldn't believe in much, though they wouldn't go so far as to deny the existence of God (god, goddess, whatever. Divinity.)
Atheism is the flipside of belief. In the absence of proof, some people have faith and some people have none. People who believe there is no divine (in the absence of proof) are atheists.
Agnostics are pretty much atheists in practice, but in theory, they wouldn't deny God if they had proof.
2007-11-14 11:21:03 · answer #6 · answered by SlowClap 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are saying non belief in God? I think I was taught that non-belief in God is more of thought process of saying I don't know if there is a God or not but I choose not to believe he exists. Atheism seems to say more the belief that there is no actual God and denial of his possibility of existence and belief in God is only a construct of people's minds. I would think that Atheism by definition would always have non-belief in God associated with it, but if one has non-belief in God only I don't think that necessarily puts you in the Atheistic fold.
2007-11-14 11:27:30 · answer #7 · answered by dumb 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
From what I know, atheism is the denial of deity, as in, they don't believe deity exists. Therefore, they believe that deity doesn't exist. They believe something, so it can't be non belief. But I've never heard of non belief as a religion anyway.
2007-11-14 11:18:33 · answer #8 · answered by debbie 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When applied only to the question of the existence of God or gods, they are synonymous. However, non-belief can describe anything where belief is relevant. For example, you can believe in God, but not believe Jesus was the son of God, in which case you are a non-believer in Christianity.
2007-11-14 11:20:34 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Good question. If non-belief means you don't believe in the Judeo-Christian God, then no. Buddhism certainly isn't Atheism, it's quite spiritual.
2007-11-14 11:20:18 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Depends on the kind of athiesm you're talking about. There are two types.
"Weak athiesm" is the same as non-belief, closely related to agnosticism.
"Strong athiesm" adds in an assertion that there is no god and thus is different from non-belief.
For more on the shades of atheism, here's a good site that keeps the information non-political: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/mathew/intro.html
2007-11-14 11:19:01 · answer #11 · answered by Donna 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋