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Comment by ThomPete | Hacker News Reader

You apparently forgot what your claim was:

No, atheism is the outright rejection of the idea of God. It is a religious belief in itself that requires a faith in the non-existence of any sort of God.

And you also forgot one definition. Namely that of religion:

Religion is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or a set of beliefs concerning the origin and purpose of the universe.

Please explain what god or gods i believe by not believing in god?

Please explain what atheists believe in?

I am an atheist by definition. Not by belief.

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You apparently forgot what your claim was:

No, atheism is the outright rejection of the idea of God. It is a religious belief in itself that requires a faith in the non-existence of any sort of God.

Yes, you are right to point that out; after looking up the definition on wikipedia I saw the nuance regarding "supernatural" and expounded upon that above.

And you also forgot one definition. Namely that of religion:

How so? I generally tend to agree with that definition of religion. Notice how physics overlaps that (cosmology and TOEs specifically).

Please explain what god or gods i believe by not believing in god?

Please explain what atheists believe in?

I already addressed this above. If you have a specific question let me know.

No you didn't address it.

You argue as if you know what my belief is.

So I ask you again. What is my belief? What is it that I believe in that makes me religious. Which god do I believe in?

You said you were an atheist, and I went through what the commonly accepted definition of that was. I quoted it. That is what atheism is. If you call yourself an atheist, then that is what you believe, unless you call yourself an atheist yet hold beliefs that are different from what atheism is understood to be, in which case, you might want to choose another word.

Again what is it that I believe?

That I don't believe in god's or boogymen or dragons?

Is that a belief? Then surely the word itself is meaningless.

If you say that non-belief is a religion then all religions that only allow for one god consist of people who daily do what is forbidden by their own religion by not believing in the thousands of gods that exist.

That I don't believe in god's or boogymen or dragons?

My assertion, as I explained, is that you have a poor understanding of the various meanings of the word "God". If that is so, then you might be missing something important. It's fine not to believe in a "pink elephant", but doing a quick Google search will show you that there are in fact things that exist and go by that name.

If you're still in disagreement and would like to take this conversation to a satisfactory conclusion, feel free to contact me via email. You'll find it via the link in my profile. I think I am done refreshing the page for this thread for today though.

Well you are the one arguing that non-belief is religious. You still haven't explained how that can live together with the apparently religious non-believe in other gods that religious people are forced into by your reasoning.

Unless you are actually going to address that, I am afraid I don't see how any satisfactory conclusion can be reached.

No biggie.

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