From: Robert Coyote (coyyote@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Jul 11 2001 - 12:11:08 MDT
Since I don't truly understand the question "Do you believe in God" because
God in this statement is undefined, and asking for a definition seems to
only obfuscate further,
what could I call myself if I simply think it is an incomprehensible
question?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Olga Bourlin" <fauxever@sprynet.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 10:20 AM
Subject: Fw: Debunk All Religiosity Equally (D.A.R.E.)
> > J.R. Molloy wrote:
> > Thanks for the accolade, but actually, I don't refer to myself as an
> atheist,
> > but rather as a non-theist, because it seems to me that belief is the
> problem,
> > not what is believed, and an atheist is one who believes that god
> (whatever
> > that means) does not exist. So, it's still a belief.
>
> It seems to me no more a belief than the word "asymptomatic," which means
> "without symptoms." Borrowing Thomas Edison's quote, if I say "I don't
> believe in Mother Goose" (and therefore call myself an amothergoosist) -
> it's an informal use of the phrase "I don't believe..." used colloquially,
> not meant to imply a "belief system." I call myself an atheist sometimes
> and a nontheist sometimes - for the life of me I can't detect much
> difference (only in other people's reactions, when I've been asked to
repeat
> the word "nontheist" a few times as they'd never heard the word before).
I
> must say I've been tending to use the term nontheist more and more lately,
> only because some people think atheism means "against..." (not
> "without..."). But in any case, I don't see how it's a belief.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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