the meaning of atheism

[leveni]

Hey fellow atheists.......I think?

A bit about myself.
Up until I was in year 8 of high school, the thought of god had never entered my mind. I would have been about 12 or 13 when all the students in the school were divided up, placed into rooms with total strangers, who then started questioning us about god. When the question of "where we came from" was asked, I put my hand up and said "my parents had sex and my dads sperm entered my mums egg I came out a baby" Everybody laughed, including the Christians. The Christian said that is not what he meant. One then asked: where did the first man and woman come from. I had little knowledge of evolution also but at that time I thought we came from monkeys, so I said "we come from monkeys", everybody laughed louder. And so did the Christians.

They asked everybody to settle down and listen, because they had a story to tell us. And so the indoctrination began.

For me, after about 365 x 12 = 4380 days of having zero contemplation of god to suddenly have been ask to believe these stories was unbelievable. After the class, one of my friends asked me if I believed in god. I said no, and what the Christians said was the biggest load of B*LL SH*T I had ever heard in my life. My friend then told me I was an Atheist. I asked what an Atheist was and he explained it to me. He said an atheist is somebody who doesn't believe in god. I asked him if he believed in god. He said "yes". He then said "There is a god but you just don't believe in him". I found this insulting. I looked up the word Atheist in the dictionary and found that it came from Greek. 'A' meaning no. 'theist' meaning god. I agreed NO GOD. For me atheism has always meant 'NO GOD'. It had nothing to do with belief. It was a fact.

Recently while surfing the net, I found an atheist web site and thought I'd enter for a bit of fun to see what was happening. But I was shocked by the stance they took. Their position was not absolute. They had blended 'science' with atheism and said there is no credible evidence for the existence of god. They did not believe in god but they also did not deny gods existence. Suddenly I was thrust back to that day at school. And I fought them over the meaning of the word Atheist. They mockingly asked me if I knew what a dictionary was and they told me to look the word up. At first I didn't, but later I did. And yes, the dictionary mentioned the word "believe", much to my regret. I have since been banned from their web site.

Rather than cause any more disturbances on the internet I have decided not discuss the topic but rather ask a question:
What does atheism mean? I want to poll the question. for example:

What does atheism mean?
1.I don't believe in god because there is no credible evidence for his existence.
2.There is no god, there never has been, there never will be.
3.....

I'm not looking for a right or wrong answer, I'm just wondering what does atheism mean to you. If you have any answers that are different from the above please tell me. But I want to limit the number of answers to about 3 to 5 maximum. But more if necessary.

Please add an answer if you think it necessary.

Thanks for listening.

[Will]

Atheism is being unconvinced of the existence of god or gods. It's simply a default position, the way we are born.

[i_am_i]

Atheism, what does it mean?

It means nothing to me, really. It's the word that is used to categorize me because of how I think and that's pretty much it. So I am an atheist in the same way that I am a human being. That's just the word for "what I am."

[Asmodean]

The previous replies were correct.

Please avoid giving atheism meanings it doesn't have - it is, after all, not a religion or a political doctrine.

[The Magic Pudding]

Welcome Leveni
I don't recall anyone having a problem with Dawkins formulation
Very few 7s are thought to exist in the wild.
I would put myself in the 6+ range

1. Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung, 'I do not believe, I know.'
   2. Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. 'I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there.'
   3. Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. 'I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.'
   4. Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. 'God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.'
   5. Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. 'I do not know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be sceptical.'
   6. Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. 'I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.'
   7. Strong atheist. 'I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung "knows" there is one.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_o ... robability

[notself]

I am a "7"

[The Magic Pudding]

I am a "7"

But that infers belief and unravels your tightly bundled disbelief  

[Tank]

I am a "7"

But that infers belief and unravels your tightly bundled disbelief  

[The Magic Pudding]

I'm 6 in my head and 7 in my heart  

Bob bless the "I'm 6 in my head and 7 in my heart"

[Zklinedi]

I'm a 6, I do not believe in a supreme being of any kind.

[Tank]

I've posted this elsewhere. It's a screen capture from the Richard Dawkins Forum that was from a poll about the demographic there. It is interesting in this context as it shows the split between 'de-facto' atheist (6) and the 'strong' atheist (7).

[PoopShoot]

I guess I'm on a sliding scale, being ignostic and all.

[Cite134]

Can I be a 6.5?

[Tank]

Can I be a 6.5?

This was continually debated at Richard Dawkins site. The consensus reached was 'no'. The scale is not analogue, but discrete, so you can's go for a 6.5  
If you wish to maintain a non-Faith based position with regard to your atheism 6 is far as you can go and maintain intellectual integrity.

[Cite134]

Can I be a 6.5?

This was continually debated at Richard Dawkins site. The consensus reached was 'no'. The scale is not analogue, but discrete, so you can's go for a 6.5  :/