Dave, though I can see what you mean by describing yourself as an atheist, this is a matter of semantics.
Only if you want to confuse the issue further than it already is. I don't really care for semantics such.
As I wrote in my previous message (but did not properly support it), atheism is not a god-free system of belief. In fact, Atheism and Theism are the two opposite poles of the same subject matter, revolving around the existence or not of god(s).
Correct.
You either sit on the side of the fence of believing in their being a god (religious + theists), or you sit on the side of the fence of saying you don't believe in a god or gods. Once again, less any theist become mistaken, that's "belief" based on (lack of) evidence and reason.
That non-belief side of the fence is the default position, and includes Athesist, Agnostics, and simply the "non-religious" in general. You have to specifically "opt-in" to the belief side of things.
In fact, having said that, THAT is in fact a major (if not the major) problem I have with religion in today's society.
Religion for a very long time has been essentially an "opt-out" system by convention, with children being labeled with the faith of their parents etc. And that's not the way it should be, it's wrong.
That's why I and many other Athiests are outspoken on the issue, because it's a defacto "opt-out" system. It if wasn't, and it was just some small groups of people who wanted to believe in such stuff, then that would be just fine, we wouldn't care, and wouldn't bother to label ourselves as atheists and promote it. Just like we wouldn't care about called ourselves anti-bigfoot or whatever.
You could say I'm Agnostic or a simple non-believer when it comes to bigfoot, or aliens, or supernatural stuff or whatever. I just don't care enough about those thing to label myself using a "stronger" term, like Atheist commonly is for religion.
Actually, according to Oxford English Dictionary,
theism:
a. gen. Belief in a deity, or deities, as opposed to atheism.
b. Belief in one god, as opposed to polytheism or pantheism; = monotheism.
c. Belief in the existence of God, with denial of revelation: = deism
d. esp. Belief in one God as creator and supreme ruler of the universe, without denial of revelation: in this use distinguished from deism.
[from Greek ? (god) + -ism.]
[from Greek theos (god) + -ism.] *
atheism:
Disbelief in, or denial of, the existence of a God. Also, Disregard of duty to God, godlessness (practical atheism).
[adoption of French athéisme (16th c. in Littré), from Greek ?? from privative ? + ? (god) and -ism.]
[adoption of French athéisme (16th c. in Littré), from Greek atheos from privative a + theos (god) and -ism.] *
And therein lies the problem with the semantics of it all when you start whipping out the dictionary definitions.
One thing the dictionary does not tell you is WHY an Athesist "disbelieves" or "denies" the existence of a god or gods.
If you actually go our and ask Atheists, almost all of them will tell you it is because of the lack of evidence, among many other factors based on reason. Unsurprisingly, that's also the EXACT SAME reasons Agnostics and non-religious people in general will use too to explain (when pressed) why they generally don't believe.
So an Agnostic or non-believer is really no different to an Atheist, regardless of what dictionary definition you want to drag out.
If anyone wants to start nick-picking and trying to figure out exactly at which threshold of evidence/reason/doubt one moves from being an Agnostic to an Atheist, then good luck, because it's pointless to even try. They are both the same side of the coin.
On the other hand, I chose for me the term unreligious because it describes a person indifferent to or not related to religion; in contrary to the term irreligious that describes a person that can be perceived as someone indifferent or hostile to religion.
No hostility here; only rationality.
Sure, and there very often no hostility in Athesists either, they just generally prefer to speak louder about it and debate it more than an Agnostic or simply and "nonreligious" person. Either way, all three sit on the same side.
Me being unreligious means that I do not really care what all the religious doctrines preach to their gullible customers because I do not recognise any religious dogmas as authorities in my life; nor can I take seriously anything I strongly believe to be outrageous lies (i.e. afterlives and resurrections promises, meekness and conformity as the answer to fear-mongering supernatural threats, magical waters and entities, supernatural events, etc.) that --factually-- have always been used by those in power to steer deceivingly the masses in favour of the former ones and against the interests of the latter ones.
You can call yourself anything you like, that's fine by me, I have absolutely no problem with it.
I prefer to call myself an Athiest.
[ * ] EDIT: Please, Dave, fix the database support of the Greek language...
What's the problem exactly?
Dave.