TreesNightly

Atheism isn�t a worldview. It isn�t a belief system. It�s a single belief, or as many of us phrase it, a �lack of� a single belief. It�s not a religion, it has no dogma or doctrine, and it only unites us under the same wide umbrella as the label �theism� unites the rest. Theism, as many of you know, includes categories such as polytheism, monotheism, pantheism, and dystheism as well as specific faiths like Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity�some of which are further broken down into even more specific faiths. A diverse spectrum of belief systems falls under the �theist� label. Atheists don�t have this plethora of sub-genres because each of us are ideological free-agents. For the most part, we don�t bundle opinions, opting to make a belief system unique to the individual. There have been attempts to deviate from our ironically shared nonconformity, such as the formation of the Brights, Atheism+, and �New Atheism��but I don�t know many proud members, and I�ve come to know a lot of...

Words are ultimately invented, with definitions that were chosen arbitrarily. They are meaningful today, because most of us have a common understanding of the context of each set of letters. They are meaningful because those definitions are relevant to most of us in that they correspond to something in our consensus reality or experience. Not, I find, when talking to religious apologists. They use theological jargon under the guise of common vernacular. Morality is defined, in part, as "that which can only exist with God." I've seen reason defined as "that which can only be accessed through God." I've often thought of making a master list of words apologists frame in terms of their deity, but it would always be incomplete. Words are invented, with definitions that were chosen arbitrarily. The apologists break no cosmic rule by creating their own language, but when they try to communicate in secular society with these identically constructed variants, they ho...