I love the meme!

Atheism is the lack of a religion, so it makes no sense to classify it as the very thing that by definition means without religion.

@maturin1919 you're being just as close-minded as you claim they are.

@maturin1919 every society does not categorize things the same way. your definition and application isn't necessarily universal.

@maturin1919 so you keep restating. but there's no god in advaita either and you guys keep insisting it is a religion. same with Buddhism.

@maturin1919 I am on topic. you're not seeing the context here and the problem with your definition. the presence, absence, or number of deities in a particular set of beliefs does not define religion.

@maturin1919 so a belief that doesn't have any god is not a religion?

@maturin1919 so you acknowledge a division between a "set of beliefs" and a "religion" per se? just making sure I understand. this seems to come up a lot around here.

so if you think it's that simple to grasp then explain it to your brethren here who seem to think any belief set is a religion. and make sure to explain epistemology to them while you're at it.

Lack of belief is as much a religion as not collecting coins is a hobby.

@maturin1919 so you strenuously object?

@FrankA Wow you twisted yourself in knots there to redefine atheism as a belief. Atheism is simply a lack of belief in any deities. Agnosticism is a lack of knowledge about something.

@Eazyduzzit he didn't twist anything. your thought that there is no such thing as deities is a BELIEF. it's not rocket science dude. lose the materiality.

@FrankA did you read the sentence I posted? An atheist DOES NOT believe in a god or gods. I haven't been convinced there are any gods. I don't BELIEVE there are any gods. I don't claim there aren't any gods either. I simply haven't been convinced of any of the God claims.
It seems really simple, but some people don't want to ask someone what they actually believe. They want to tell them what they think the other person believes.

@FrankA Look back through this and tell me where I said I believed there was a 50/50 chance there is a god. I don't want to discuss it anymore either if you're going to be so dishonest.

@FrankA it's true I've never seen an once of evidence for a god. I have however seen tons of claims of gods. With no evidence of any of those gods, I have no reason to believe in any of those claims. If disbelief in those claims is a belief, then I guess I don't understand what the word means.
When my granddaughter used to talk to her imaginary friend named Ashley I thought it was cute. I never heard Ashley talk back, never saw Ashley and I didn't believe Ashley existed. Did I absolutely know Ashley didn't exist anywhere besides my granddaughter's imagination? No. Just because I didn't know it, does that mean I believe there's a 50/50 chance Ashley is real? No.
I don't believe in any Gods. If you want to imagine that my lack of religious belief is a belief, then go right ahead, but that doesn't make it so.

@FrankA The thing is, I’ve never known an atheist who used that definition of of the word atheist. An atheist is simply someone who doesn’t believe in any gods. I’ve tried to explain that, but apparently I’m not very good at getting my point across. If I put a percentage on it, I’d say I’m probably 97.5 percent sure there aren’t any gods. Of course people are always redefining what a god is.
I don’t know why you wouldn’t believe me when I say I have no god beliefs. I believe you when you say you do.

I thought it was one of the others, not you. Not going to redecorate the Appian way again are we?

@oldFloyd I just want to be Kirk Douglas.

@maturin1919 Sorry. The LIVING version of Kirk Douglas.

@maturin1919 bawten dooten dawten dee deeten dee dee dee

I was always partial to, you can tune a piano but you can't tuna fish.

@oldFloyd as someone who recently delivered and restored pianos this last year, you just might have an idea how many times I've heard that joke

@OnTheInside would it be a terrible assumption to say at least one to many?