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O.T - Religion & Climbing 7-Dec-2009 At 6:36:20 PM jaebo

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i can't be bothered reading the entire thread.

but to clarify - theism/atheism by deifinition is the belief or lack of belief on the existence of God (God by reasoning is a deity and is omnipresent, so there is no need to add them as extra categories)

having a belief system or not, does not disqualify the term atheist as i believe you simply have a misunderstanding of the definition of what atheism is. it's not concerned with the movement of thought of not having a belief. only not having a belief in God.

perhaps something to add, catergorically, is gnostic-atheism, agnostic-atheism, gnostic-theism and agnostic-theism.
while theism deals with 'belief'. gnosticism deals with 'knowledge'. so one can claim to have, or not have, knowledge as to why they do, or do not, believe in the existence of God.

so someone like dawkins would say they are atheist. but more precisely, he is a gnostic-athiest. someone who does not believe in the existence of God but has no rational argument for why they don't, would be an agnostic-atheist. make sense?
likewise someone like william lane craig would claim to be a theist. but more precisely, a gnostic-theist. people who say they believe in God but can't articulate a rational argument would be agnostic-theists.

with regard to the last statement, this is fallacious. no offense intended. it goes against scientific and rational principles.

personally i would go with hume's famous words 'a wise person proportions their beliefs to the evidence'.
how evidence presents itself and is interpreted is different for each person hence perennial debates exist.
however such a view allows for the possibility of growth and change, not stagnant thought.

edit: just one thing to add, religion and sustaining a belief in the existence of God are not synonomous.