'Atheist' v/s 'Non-believer'?

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Melisande

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I am what some people prefer to call an Atheist. Myself, I prefer 'non-believer', mainly because I feel that the word 'atheist' has such anti-Christian connotations.

I respect all religions, and all believers, though I can not even begin to fathom the concept of having a religion or having a faith.

I am just curious to know if other non-believers care what they are called, and what word they prefer to use when presented with the question what they believe.
 

GLOOMCOOKIE

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The term 'Atheist' means that you don't believe in deities, not that you are anti-christian.

I have respect for portions of the teachings of most of the religions I've encountered, but I dislike the concept of religion as a whole. When I am asked what I believe, I say that I adhere to a personal system of ethics and values I have derived from many different teachings and personal experience. I prefer not to be labeled when it comes to my beliefs, but I am an atheist, by the given definition.
 

Cybernaught

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It seems to me that Atheists go to conventions to listen to people like Dawkins and gather with one another and talk about religion as much as theists do. Non-believers, on the other hand, just don't care to talk about religion at all. I prefer being considered the latter.
 
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DeaK

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I'm an atheist. (I don't go to conventions, and I've never read a book by Dawkins, though.) I don't understand the word to hold anti-Christian connotations. However, I'm also a feminist, and I don't understand that word as being in any way anti-men, but a lot of people seem to perceive it as such. To be frank, whatever I call myself it's probably going to offend these people who wish to think I am 'anti' whatever it is they believe. I need to believe what I believe, and I need to identify myself as such – so I put my needs before theirs. ;)

I don't actually like the term 'non-believer' because it is very unspecific. If it was 'non-believer in gods' (which is what atheist means), maybe I could get behind it, but as it is, to me it seems to encompass all spiritual and existential matters – and I certainly believe something about life and the universe.
 

Sarah Madara

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Atheists specifically believe that there is no God. A non-believer simply doesn't believe that there is a God. Atheism is a belief. Non-belief is absence of belief.

A non-believer might be an atheist, or an agnostic, or someone who believes his or her own version of things.* Most religious people would call me an atheist, but I'm not. I'm agnostic. However, if I were a betting woman, I would put my money with the atheists. There's a difference between having a skeptical appreciation of the odds and choosing to adhere to a belief.

*ETA: I agree with DeaK that non-believer is not a good term. I said a non-believer might believe his or her own version of things because someone who does not believe a specific doctrine will be labeled a "non-believer" by those who do believe the doctrine, but it is not an accurate term when applied broadly.
 
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Melisande

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Atheists specifically believe that there is no God. A non-believer simply doesn't believe that there is a God. Atheism is a belief. Non-belief is absence of belief.

Thank you for clarifying, and to make myself a lot clearer, I am still a non-believer according to the definition you have given here.
 

Sarah Madara

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I think atheist is fine -- it means:
A -- absence of
Theism -- belief in god

This is absolutely correct. However, I believe modern usage is favoring a narrower definition that associates atheism with a positive belief in the absence of deities. While that twists the word origin around, it seems to be the more common meaning these days. That's why I distinguish atheist from non-believer or agnostic.

Atheism may suffer from having been co-opted by the "New Atheism" movement of Christopher Hitchens and others who do take a decidedly anti-religious view.
 

veinglory

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I disagree. I think the word continues to have it's face meaning. Some within that meaning have stronger views as well as a-theism . The term includes but is not limited to anti-theism. I would hope that atheism won't borrow from theism and invent the need to have doctrin schisms. Any one not theist is atheist. Whatever else the might be is just an optional extra
 

DeaK

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What made you guys atheists/nonbelievers? (Just curious to know.)

I like this question :D

I grew up in a family where we didn't talk about spiritual beliefs. We went to church (Lutheran) on Christmas day, that's it.
I didn't really think about 'god' or where I'd come from, etc, until I was a teenager, and then the religious teachings I was exposed to made no sense to me.

Good and evil, to me, are not from another world or other sources. Humans are animals, and animals do good things for bad ('evil') reasons, bad things for good reasons, good things for good reasons, and bad things for bad reasons. Sometimes the outcome is tragic, but it is never not from this world (pardon the double negative).

I think morals are great because, really, they just help you live a good life. If I am good to others, they are good to me (it is just cause and effect).

I am much more of a nature girl than to believe that the universe was created by god. Stuff happens and that causes other stuff to happen, and so on. I don't know what the first thing to happen was - my feeling is that there was no first; there was always a cause. Umm, I can't explain it, and I feel I don't need to. I don't think it was the decision of something all powerful, though.

The primary principle of life/nature seems to me to be perpetuation. I don't know why it is like that, only that it balances another feature of life, which seems to be that stuff dies.

Hope that makes sense. I don't think about this stuff, or discuss it very often.

I haven't done a lot of philosophical reading (maybe that's obvious), but I expect it could help someone who is unsure about this stuff. I don't feel unsure.

More and more as I get older, I don't have time to worry about these things. I'm too busy trying to do what I want to do with my life. It's short, but can be completely fulfilling, I believe.

/rambling post
 
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It seems to me that atheist can be different than non-believer. Because a non-believe can be someone like Thomas Jefferson, who hated the supernatural elements of Bible and wrote his own version as a guide to morality without the supernatural events in it. Or it could be a person who simply doesn't believe in the same deity as the believer, because technically if you believe in a different deity then you don't believe in the one the other guy believes in. Or you could still believe that God exists but for some reason have lost your faith in God.

An atheist is someone who simply has a lack of belief in deities and/or the supernatural.
 

Dawnstorm

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What made you guys atheists/nonbelievers? (Just curious to know.)

The way this question is phrased is exactly why some of us feel the need to distinguish between Atheist and Non-believer. It sounds like "believing" is the default, and if we don't believe we must have slipped from a state of believing into a state of non-beliving.

For me, that's not really true. Stopping to believe in god was simply part of growing up, for me. As a very young child I'd believe in the "Christkindl" and the Easter Bunny. I always loved animals, so I pretty soon caught on to the fact that a bunny can't really hold a brush and colour eggs. So I sort of slipped out of believe here. I don't remember any details, but at some time I remember being surprised that people actually believe in God, and then I was worried that if others found out that I didn't believe they might be hurt.

No single thing made me a non-believer. God just never really made sense to me in the first place, and I was never the sort of child who would believe people just because they were older. As I started making sense of the world, God just sort of faded out as something that didn't make sene. Much like the easter bunny, but less precise.

That means: I can honestly say that I don't believe the Easter Bunny exists. I do not understand the concept of God at all - it makes no sense to me - so if I say that God doesn't exist, I don't really know what that sentence means. I usually use this sentence as an ad-hoc shield against an assumed authority that I don't accept. So, if anyone insists on telling me that God doesn't want me to do something, even after repeatedly being told that I don't believe in God, I might end up making the statement that God doesn't exist. I keep joking that I'm an agnostic five days a week, and an atheist on Sunday.
 

GLOOMCOOKIE

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What made you guys atheists/nonbelievers? (Just curious to know.)

I thought nobody would ask.

Although I was writing a much longer version of this post, for some reason I was mysteriously logged out of the site while doing so. I'll make it more concise this time...

*looks around suspiciously*

I was raised christian, but was kicked out of the church when I began to ask questions that the elders of the church couldn't answer. I studied sever other religions afterwards, and came to the conclusion that organized religion wasn't for me. I compiled my own system of beliefs that involves understanding that all deities are imaginary, correct living through a personal set ethics and values, and knowing that modern science can explain most any perceivable phenomena.

Hope this has been revealing for you.
 

Al Stevens

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George Carlin's "religion is bullshit" sums it up. I don't care what I'm called.

I don't believe; I speculate. I don't disbelieve; I doubt.
 

Her Dark Star

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As a kid I wanted to believe in something, my father was a Buddhist, my mum and grandparents vaguely Christian, my best friend is Muslim so I had a broader upbringing than many. However nothing I looked at made any sense, though I met some very intelligent and respected theologians, none of them really seemed to have any more answers than anyone else. Everything just seemed to be a way of avoiding saying 'I don't know'. In most of the various teachings I encountered there were parts I liked, however they were generally principles and values that I already held. I simply found that religion didn't offer me anything I needed. Well, being declared a heretic by a priest who ran a youth group I went to may not have helped either :)
 

Albedo

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'Atheist' is a fine, succinct, neutral common noun for someone who does not believe in gods. I'll be damned before I wipe it from my lexicon because people might associate me with Dawkins or Hitch. That would be like Christians prefering to call themselves 'pro-Jesus' to avoid being associated with Pat Robertson or the Pope. IMO.
 

mccardey

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I am just curious to know if other non-believers care what they are called, and what word they prefer to use when presented with the question what they believe.

I honestly don't define myself by whether I believe in God or a god or not. Nor do I care whether other people claim to. Or not.

Just - since you asked ;)
 

frimble3

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I'm a non-believer. In religion, among other things. And atheism may be the correct term, but, to me, it suggests someone who's thought about the whole 'religion' thing, and has a rationale for their beliefs. I just think the whole thing is sort of silly. Like the easter bunny or the tooth fairy.
 

veinglory

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The things 'atheist' is specific about what is not believed. I am fond of words that mean what they say. I am atheist, not a-believing -- there is stuff I believe.
 
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