Atheism doesn't have to be a belief!

[MidGe]

You still don't get it godboy. Atheism is, of necessity a response to an over fertile imagination and confusion between the product of this imagination and the real.

Atheism has no existence without someone positing theism. It is simply a rational response to a dangerous and pernicious mental imbalance in others.

[joel2006]

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in your previous thread someone said atheism wasn't a belief system b/c it is based on a lack of belief (i think that was the argument). i view it more as believing that god doesn't exist, which is still a belief. perhaps i'm just making a semantical argument here, but i don't see how it makes sense to say that atheism isn't a belief system. it may not have as many tenets as the three major religions, but it is still based on a fundamental "belief."

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First of all, what definition of atheist are you using? Many atheists don't believe, but don't have a position otherwise (theists often label them agnostic, but they are without belief so they consider themselves atheists) In my experience atheists who say there is no God are very much in the minority. Secondly, since there is absolutely no proof that God exists, saying that there is no God isn't necessarily a belief (that is, something taken by faith) it can be a position taken based on the evidence (or the lack thereof.) What matters (in turns of deciding if it's a belief system)is how they (the particular atheist) views it. And just because it can be a belief system (i believe there is no God) doesn't mean it is, since some people just don't believe (and don't have a position otherwise or point to the lack of evidence for their position) many people who believe in God can't seem to get their brains around the concept that some people just don't believe in anything (that is they don't accept things that aren't proven facts) I am one of these.

[Duke]

When a word uses all value in a particular context because a large group decides to use it to conflate distinct groups, I figure it's useless. The word "belief" is meaningless to me. It's completely fine to say that a dismissal of hearsay for lack of evidence is actually a belief in something, but equating that with the acceptance of a theory that is in direct violation of reality is absurd.

Yeah, I know... that's what I believe. And that's why the word means nothing.

[godBoy]

You can exchange 'belief' with 'think' if it makes it easier, people believe what they think is right.

So after your best evidence seeking if you're yet to find anything to make you think that a God exists - you don't think God exists, you don't believe God exists. This is different than saying "There is no God".

I'm not sure where you think the damage has been done to the public's view of atheism, I agree that most people see atheism as more than simple non-belief in God. There's a lot of people who see atheism as a position against God, where it's not necessarily the case.