[004]
96.255.225.223
Current Version
Changed line(s) 2 from:
to:
(Note: the [[superscript:note]] says, \\\"According to Vivekananda, the attainment of moksha--salvation--does not actually require belief in a God at all, but it is usually regarded as making the process easier, particularly in the beginning.\\\")
Changed line(s) 5 from:
n
To begin with common usage, the 1913 edition of Webster\'s Revised Unabridged Dictionary defines \'atheist\' as [[http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=atheist&use1913=on \
to:
To begin with common usage, the 1913 edition of Webster\\\'s Revised Unabridged Dictionary defines \\\'atheist\\\' as [[http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=atheist&use1913=on \\\"One who disbelieves or denies the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being.\\\"]] Definitions of this kind are generally accepted, with one important caveat: that \\\'disbelief\\\' be read as the \\\'\\\'absence\\\'\\\' of a \\\'\\\'positive\\\'\\\' belief, not the presence of the \\\'\\\'negative\\\'\\\' belief. In other words, by this definition, an atheist is anyone whose answer to \\\"Does at least one god exist?\\\" is \\\'\\\'not \\\"yes\\\"\\\'\\\'. For example, atheists may include:
* People who have never been exposed to theistic ideas (for example, infants). The \\\"I\\\'ve never heard of those\\\" position accords well with the etymology of the word--\\\'a-theism\\\', \\\'without god\\\'--but isn\\\'t what people usually talk about when they say \\\'atheist\\\'. The technical term for this is \\\'implicit\\\' atheism.
* People who have heard of gods without believing they exist (\\\'explicit\\\' atheists), and who actually deny their existence. These people--the ones who would say, \\\"No, there aren\\\'t any gods\\\"--are called \\\'strong\\\' or \\\'positive\\\' atheists.
* People who have heard of gods but are \\\'\\\'undecided\\\'\\\' whether they exist. These who would say, \\\"Gods may exist, but they may not\\\" are called \\\'weak\\\' or \\\'negative\\\' atheists.
* People who disbelieve the existence of gods, but prefer other labels. The best known of these is \\\'[[{{UsefulNotes/Agnosticism}} agnostic]]\\\' (roughly, \\\"I don\\\'t know if they exist or not\\\"), but others include \\\'apatheist\\\' (\\\"I don\\\'t care if they exist\\\"), \\\'antitheist\\\' (\\\"Gods don\\\'t exist, and believing in them is harmful\\\"), \\\'theological noncognitivist\\\' (\\\"Words like \\\'God\\\' [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords don\\\'t mean anything]]\\\"), and \\\'non-religious\\\' (which is a label used by people all over the spectrum, including some theists).
* People who adhere to any of [[http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismquestions/p/AtheistReligion.htm the several religions whose tenets include no gods]] (for example, Buddhism and Jainism), or a religion that openly allows for atheistic practitioners (for example, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism Hinduism]]).[[note]]According to Vivekananda, the attainment of moksha--salvation--does not actually require belief in a God at all, but it is usually regarded as making the process easier, particularly in the beginning.[[/note]] Depending on your definition, UsefulNotes/{{pantheism}} (\\\"There is one God, and that is the entire Universe\\\") can also be theology held by atheists; certainly some atheists revere the natural world in a religious sense of the word.
* People who have never been exposed to theistic ideas (for example, infants). The \\\"I\\\'ve never heard of those\\\" position accords well with the etymology of the word--\\\'a-theism\\\', \\\'without god\\\'--but isn\\\'t what people usually talk about when they say \\\'atheist\\\'. The technical term for this is \\\'implicit\\\' atheism.
* People who have heard of gods without believing they exist (\\\'explicit\\\' atheists), and who actually deny their existence. These people--the ones who would say, \\\"No, there aren\\\'t any gods\\\"--are called \\\'strong\\\' or \\\'positive\\\' atheists.
* People who have heard of gods but are \\\'\\\'undecided\\\'\\\' whether they exist. These who would say, \\\"Gods may exist, but they may not\\\" are called \\\'weak\\\' or \\\'negative\\\' atheists.
* People who disbelieve the existence of gods, but prefer other labels. The best known of these is \\\'[[{{UsefulNotes/Agnosticism}} agnostic]]\\\' (roughly, \\\"I don\\\'t know if they exist or not\\\"), but others include \\\'apatheist\\\' (\\\"I don\\\'t care if they exist\\\"), \\\'antitheist\\\' (\\\"Gods don\\\'t exist, and believing in them is harmful\\\"), \\\'theological noncognitivist\\\' (\\\"Words like \\\'God\\\' [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords don\\\'t mean anything]]\\\"), and \\\'non-religious\\\' (which is a label used by people all over the spectrum, including some theists).
* People who adhere to any of [[http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismquestions/p/AtheistReligion.htm the several religions whose tenets include no gods]] (for example, Buddhism and Jainism), or a religion that openly allows for atheistic practitioners (for example, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism Hinduism]]).[[note]]According to Vivekananda, the attainment of moksha--salvation--does not actually require belief in a God at all, but it is usually regarded as making the process easier, particularly in the beginning.[[/note]] Depending on your definition, UsefulNotes/{{pantheism}} (\\\"There is one God, and that is the entire Universe\\\") can also be theology held by atheists; certainly some atheists revere the natural world in a religious sense of the word.
