Does just saying that you are an atheist mean you do not believe in god?

Question

Dream on.

Answer 1

I don't think a statement of any belief is confirmation of it.

Look how many murderous gang members wear crucifixes.

I think the error from most "atheists" is that they're really agnostic, which is more a semantics error than a misstatement of belief. On the other hand, when Christians continuously act in very unchristian-like manners, that is not a semantics problem, it's hypocrisy

Answer 2

"Atheism" and "not believing in god" are basically equivalent. I suppose "saying" one is an atheist doesn't mean one is an atheist. Although such obvious truisms probably have nothing to do with your question. I suspect it has more to do what some of the other posters suggest that atheists believe in "god". Such claims seem to be based on semantical gymnastics than anything substantial and aren't terribly interesting.

Answer 3

Yeah...it means I believe in facts, in science, in nature. It means I'm mature enough to take responsibility for my own actions and try to make the world a better place, instead of accepting that it's part of "God's Plan". It means I live every day to the fullest, because I know that when I die, that's the end. I only get one life, so I've gotta have fun living it, instead of worrying about what's coming after.


Give me scientific proof that there's a God , and I'll be converted...until then, I'm stickin' to atheism.

Answer 4

The mere saying out of the words "I am an atheist" will not make you stop believing in god instantly. You say those words when you already are convinced that this is true.

Answer 5

No, but if you say you're an atheist and you believe it, then yes, that means you don't believe in God.

Answer 6

That's i am saying. I know many atheists admitting something between Earth and Sky or at least believe in Nature.

Answer 7

Atheists are people who simply do not believe in God.
Atheists do not know that God does not exist, but we know that theists who claim to know that God does exist are not giving adequate enough reasons. I acknowledge that lack of evidence for X does not prove that X does not exist, but shows that evidence for X is inadequate to show that X does exist.

johnslat demonstrates a common misunderstanding of atheism. People who use the term "faith" interchangeably to describe both theism and atheism are severly mistaken. Do we say you have to have faith to accept that gravity exists? Do we have to have faith to accept that evolution is real?
We don't even have to go that far. Do we say we have to have faith to accept the reality of physical world? No no no. We don't. Faith is such a condescending word to simply equate idiotic nature of theism with atheism because theists know that reason alone is not enough to accept the existence of God.

Answer 8

First, you ask an intelligent question. Then you insult me.
Does "dream on" mean I cannot be an atheist? Does it mean that saying I am one means I am one is impossible, or a contradiction, or just what does it mean, aside from being an insult?
Are you always this insulting?

Answer 9

Atheism, like religion, is faith-based, since the existence or non-existence of God can never be "proven" by human reason.
Atheists are as much "believers" as are those who follow a religion.

Dear Jason,
Do you speak for all atheists? A simple Google search will indicate that perhaps you do not.
For example:
"There is no God
Read / Write Comments
By Vexen Crabtree 1999 May 05
An introduction to some of the objections that can be raised to monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Islam, and general theism. There are many indicators that god does not exist, and this page is a thematic introduction to some of the arguments that support atheism.

Contents:

God contradicts Free Will of all living beings including itself
Evil and suffering contradict existence of god
God is dangerous and religion is wrong
Souls do not exist
The Experience of Spirits and God
Morals
Assumptions
Infallible Texts
Communication: Human Corruption - Satan's influence?"

and

"Of all the public-intellectual atheists, the most stalwart and lucid is probably Christopher Hitchens. "I'm an atheist," Hitchens said in a recent interview. "I'm not just neutral about religion, I'm hostile to it. I think it is a positively bad idea, not just a false one." Being anti-religion, however, is not intellectually equivalent to affirming the nonexistence of God. Bertrand Russell, who occupied the same ground as Hitchens, was careful to stress that he was agnostic, not atheist: "An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. … The agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or denial.
Being an atheist is a philosophical stance. It is not enough simply to declare yourself one: That is mere dogmatism—like announcing, without further argument, that you don't believe in free will or objective values. If you wish to be an intellectually interesting atheist, you are obliged to give some evidence for your position. After all, there are plenty of rational and fiercely intelligent thinkers—Garry Wills, to name one—who don't agree with you.
The evidentiary ledger has two sides: reasons for believing God exists, and reasons for believing God doesn't exist. It is sometimes claimed that science has annihilated all the reasons in the pro-God column. That was close to being true in the 19th century. Victorian geologists were able to show that the Earth was vastly older than the Bible supposed. Chemists demystified life by synthesizing organic molecules in the lab. Darwin scuppered the notion that a divine artificer was needed to explain the marvelously adaptive designs found in nature. By the end of the 19th century, a purely material worldview—one that excluded supernatural explanations or spiritual phenomena, let alone a deity—seemed quite plausible.
That is pretty much the worldview staked out by today's public atheists. They haven't come to terms with 20 th-century science, which revived some of the reasons in the pro-God column. The discovery that the universe began with a creationlike Big Bang around 13 billion years ago, for example, breathed new life into the so-called cosmological argument, which posits God as the first cause of nature. The discovery that the fundamental laws of nature contained constants that appear to have been fine-tuned so that the cosmos would eventually yield intelligent life lent new credence to the design argument for God's existence. Quantum theory dematerialized reality, making the cosmos seem more like a thought than like a machine. But whose thought?"

and

"The primary definition of the word god is a generic deity, this word should be spelt with a lower case g. Atheists do not believe in this entire category of things: gods. Atheists do not believe in gods. Superhuman beings or spirits worshipped as having power over nature, human fortunes, etc. Gods: we don't believe in 'em.

atheists don't believe in gods

To define the word atheism as being the belief that “God” does not exist is therefore incorrect and biased.

The word atheism comes to us through Greek and Latin. The Greeks knew about atheists, they were people who didn't believe in the gods. Atheism was treated as a criminal offence at times. The Romans knew about atheists, they were people who didn't worship the gods. The Romans put many atheists to death. In the history books this is known as the persecution of the Christians. That is because to the Romans the Christians were atheists (atheists being people who didn't worship the real gods) and of course history has been written for most of the last two thousand years primarily by and for Christians. Of course Nero and his gang weren't afraid of Christians because he knew the Christians were worshipping the One True god not their false gods, use your brain! How many people do you know who believe in other people's gods and yet not their own? It is a preposterous suggestion. Nero was as scared of the early Christians and their “true religion” as President Jackson was scared of the Mormon moron charlatan Joseph Smith or Ronald Reagan was scared of the Rev. Moon. The early Christians were just a small cult who denied the gods. Bloody atheists.

God with a capital G is just one of thousands of gods I don't believe in. It isn't sensible to say I don't believe in God with a capital G any more than I don't believe in Acolnahuacatl, Ahura Mazda, Aphrodite or Allah."

It would seem that there are at least some rather militant atheists who DO "claim to know that G/god does not exist.

Answer 10

Nobody can be an Atheist in life. Anybody can be Atheist in
just saying so.