Madalyn Murray O’Hair did not speak for the tradition of atheist philosophers, and certainly does not speak for the practical working defintion of atheism among today's atheists.
atheism has never explicitely been taken to mean belief that a god of any kind is impossble, except by theists.
obviously there are no moral absolutes that are consistent among religious sources. the bible itself is internally contradictory. modern morality comes from collective human common sense and experience of what is good for society, and it has virtually nothing to do with belief or lack of belief in god.
so you mean, you know better what the exact sentence "thou shalt not kill" means better than I do? Did you read the original bible in it's first language? There could easily be some re-telling changes after how many years and you want to argue it about "murder" vs "kill" ? Are you going to tell me "steal" really means "tax"?
That's not at all true. There is a distinction between being agnostic and being an atheist. It's been pointed out to you by another poster as well. You seem to be confused on the difference. I'm just pointing out facts. Perhaps you aren't an atheist, yet you call yourself one?
You're diverting this thread, but to answer your question, the interpretation listed in the link I gave you is based upon not only biblical scholars best efforts to translate the text correctly, but upon looking at what God does and does not allow throughout other sections of the Old Testament.
it's certainly true that people who claim that it's impossible a god of any kind exists represent an extremely small minority of people that call themselves atheists. there's a distinction between "strong" atheist and agnosticism. the vast majority of atheists are "weak" however, and whatever distinction exists between weak atheism and agnosticsm is purely semantics.
There is, unfortunately, some disagreement about the definition of atheism. It is interesting to note that most of that disagreement comes from theists — atheists themselves tend to agree on what atheism means. Christians in particular dispute the definition used by atheists and insist that atheism means something very different. The broader, and more common, understanding of atheism among atheists is quite simply "not believing in any gods." No claims or denials are made — an atheist is just a person who does not happen to be a theist. Sometimes this broader understanding is called "weak" or "implicit" atheism. Most good, complete dictionaries readily support this.
As crowTrobot has said, most theists define atheism as claiming there is no god, and that may very well be the documented definition in many places, but that is not how me, and most atheists I know, define the word. I could say I'm an atheist or an agnostic, but I choose to say I'm an atheist because I believe agnosticism is too light. People I have talked to generally hear agnostic and think that the agnostic person thinks there is an equal chance of there being a God and there not being a God. How about "Atheistic agnosticism"? I just say I am an atheist and I will continue to do so for practical reasons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_atheism I am an agnostic only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at the bottom of the garden. —Richard Dawkins
When someone asked my father whether he was still a practicing Catholic, his response was always, "heck no, I don't need any more practice..."
Did you hear about the Jehovah's Witness who converted to Unitarianism? He went around knocking on doors for no particular reason...
I define atheists as atheism.org defines atheism. That you made up your own definition is neither factual nor compelling. Call it neo-atheism, as I previously called it. I also find a certain irony in those so anti-theity strictly having their own set of beliefs, and identifying themselves as a member of a group with somewhat similar beliefs. It's kind of a quasi-religious social stratum.
Not fixed. This definition below fits me pretty good. You might say I'm something of a deist, too. I do believe in natural rights and that sort of thing, and those are endowed by The Creator. But as far as I am concerned, The Creator is something akin to the invisible hand. Agnosticism (Greek: α- a-, without + γνώσις gnōsis, knowledge; after Gnosticism) is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims — particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of deities, spiritual beings, or even ultimate reality — are unknown or, in some forms of agnosticism, unknowable.[1]It is not a religious declaration in itself, and an agnostic may also be a theist or an atheist.[2]
If a god does not exist, does it mean that the devil does not as well? I am pretty sure that I have heard, from non-religious people, that the devil is in the details.
The neo-atheist seems to concentrate more on talking negatively about organized religion. Instead of atheism, it's more anti-theism under the atheism label. At least that's what I gather from reading this thread.
