Onifre writes
quote:
First, there is no such thing as "non-belief," that is a made up term. It refers to nothing at all.
I live my life with the knowledge that if I drop something it will fall, not that a supernatural entity will suspend it in mid-air. That's what atheism is, nothing more nothing less.
I respectfully disagree with you. Yes, non-belief is a made up word, just like every other word in the English language that describes a thought or train of thought. A word has to start somewhere before it becomes commonly accepted and widely understood. And it is also used to replace the two sentences you had to use to convey the train of thought. So, next time instead of wasting bandwidth trying to explain to someone what your thoughts on the matter are, all you have to do is use the term "non-belief".
Non-belief refers to the absent of belief in the supernatural. It is used to emphasize the fact that non-believers aren't necessarily anti-religious.
It is sort of like when I say I'm not a lawyer to emphasize the fact that while I'm not a lawyer I'm not necessarily anti-lawyer... never mind.
You get the idea.
quote:
And anti-religious people don't have to be atheist, they could be deist or agnostic. So your whole position is irrelevant.
Religion is generally used as short for organized religion. I know plenty of theists who have very negative attitude towards organized religion.
Edited by Species8472, : No reason given.