I know this has been discussed here before, but I just looked it up in another dictionary and I still think that people are using this word incorrectly.
The dictionary says that the definition of atheism is the belief that there is no god.
People on this forum have said that this is incorrect. They’ve said that atheist are ‘without a belief in god’ but are not ‘with a belief in no god’. The claim is as follows:
A-: without
Theism: a belief in god.
I couldn’t argue with that because I didn’t really know where the word came from and that claim seemed pretty good.
Then, I saw the following line in the dictionary under the definition of atheism:
quote:
{< Gk athe(os) godless + -ISM}
from The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, The Unabridged Edition, Published in New York by Random House, Inc. 1983 page 93
This says, to me, that the claim that atheism means ‘without a belief in god’ but not ‘with a belief in no god’ is wrong. The word is greek in origin and is actually a belief that god doesn’t exist.
Why do people who are without a belief in god but not with a belief in no god want to be called atheists, even thought that’s not what the word really means?
I’ve read on this forum that they want to take back the word and to stop the christians from misusing it.
Why change the meaning of the word? Why not come up with a new word? Or find the word that does mean without a belief in god?
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