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Antitheists: Is it more important to you to oppose belief in religion or belief in belief in religion?

Rhetoric 7 Jan 29
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9 comments

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I oppose organized religion, churches & holy books--Any pre-conceived belief system being taught as fact, especially to children. Personally, I think it should be treated like liquor or tobacco, you should have to be 18 or older to be allowed in church to help stop indoctrination.

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I'm uncertain what the difference is there?

See my comment below for my clarification.

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I usually focus on where we agree and explore the paths we can take together. When we do that, the differences become trivial.

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In regard to many specific constructs of God or gods, I'm a strong atheist or anti-theist: I actively disbelieve in those entities, e.g., Yahweh. Regarding the more general concept of "God," I'm a weak atheist or de facto atheist (e.g., I reject the claim for God as baseless and I lack belief, but I don't claim any knowledge that such a being couldn't exist in some capacity, though the clearer the description the less inclined I am to grant its likelihood [e.g., all loving, all powerful, all knowing — I consider that self-contradictory in a world with suffering]). While I do eschew religion and I would prefer people be nonreligious (even if they're theists of some stripe) for various reasons, I'm not in the business of shouting down others' beliefs. I may be critical of religion in some instances, especially in regard to its influence on education, healthcare, public policy, etc., but otherwise I don't really care how people spend their time on Sunday mornings or what they think/hope happens after they die. I may think it's detrimental in some respects to believe in a God or to think we'll live forever in bliss or to think we might go to a suffering pit for all eternity, but everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. (I do think teaching Hell to children is child abuse, however, so I'm a little wary of how some religious people educate their children in some regards.)

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What I mean is: for anyone who identifies as an Antitheist, what do you personally focus on more? (No, I'm not trolling.)

A. Opposing direct religious beliefs: such as believing that souls or gods exist, god has a plan for your life, god governs morality, or things like that.

B. Opposing "belief in belief" as Daniel Dennett refers to it, where many people believe that religion, or some singularly religious ideas, at least, are good or worth believing in (in the active sense, irrespective of wether they are true or not).

C. Something besides these two broad focuses.

In part, I'm trying to understand what a self-identified Antitheist would consider their personal definition and focus of their antitheism.

I think the problem is the opposing? I don't oppose it. I simply don't believe in any god. Period. If someone wants a reasonable discussion on the subject - sure. But I'm not going to go out of my way to prove anything to the believers.

"Focus" etc....? There is no more focus on this in my life than there is worry about alien abduction happening here in Connecticut....just not on the radar at all. There is no gawd/s, believers are credulous fools, what's for dinner?

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I don't understand the question.

An anti-theist is a person who believes that no god exists and is not directly related to religion, as several religions do not believe in gods - Buddhism/scientology etc

@Dwight an atheist does not believe that the claim that a god exists is true, they do not assert that god cannot exist.

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Is this one of those troll questions, where to answer it you must first accept that there is something to "believe" in? Please stop.......

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There is a group or so that has atheists trying to normalize atheism. A lot of us are spreading our knowledge and common sense about the veracity of religion. Religion was created to separate us and divide us into groups, factions. People are blindly following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.

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Not sure what you mean. An anti-theist and an atheist. Are they the same? Opposing belief is different than denying a god exists.

I understand the difference, but if you are anti-theist and NOT an atheist, you would be opposing yourself which is pretty much an oxymoron. (IMHO)

@jlynn37 for me I think it stops at opposing thumbs...

@iPaul628 NO. As I said it is an oxymoron.

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