What the %&^$# is an Atheist?

I am fond of asking random new people in my life about their beliefs concerning god. I am rather astounded by the number of people who tell me they don't believe in god, but when I ask (or assert) that they then must be atheist, they deny being an atheist. I am not the first to suggest that this is due to a misunderstanding of what it means to be an atheist. So, I shall happily clarify:

Atheism is an absence of belief in the existence of god(s). Of course, people like to define "god(s)" in their own special way, be it "uncaused cause" or "unmoved mover" or "Omni-whatever entity" or "transcendent creator who interacts with the world and answers prayers" or whatever supernatural maker/owner/mover/causer of the universe. To me, god is any kind of supernatural transcendent being. If you water down the definition of god to be something entirely naturalistic (god = nature) and don't believe in anything supernatural, then you may as well stop kidding yourself and admit you're an atheist so we can get on with our lives.

Lot's of people like to break atheism down into "strong" and "weak" atheism. Strong atheism is the affirmation of the nonexistance of god(s) - I.E. "god(s) do not exist". Weak atheism is an absence of a positive god-belief, I.E. "I don't believe in god(s)".

One can further clarify one's atheism using the clarifiers "ignostic", "agnostic", etc. Those will be explained in another post.

I find it especially cute when people say, "I define god as love. therefore, it is easy to prove god, you just have to feel love." They think this is such a simple and undeniable way of proving my position wrong. Alas, it proves nothing, and merely toys with language. Generally, before you begin any discourse/argument/discussion/debate on the existence of god, you need to first define god.


Reference @ Internet Infidels
Reference @ Rational Response Squad