Philosophy Now Forum

Hey everyone,

I am Atheos Alio. Yes, another atheist. But don't worry, I am not just another anti-religion, secular humanist. I am here to give my $0.02 on anything that I find interesting. I like to play "devil's advocate" in a constructive way in order to challenge the participants of a debate to really think about their stance, evidence, and arguments. I just started a blog atheosalio.blogspot.com. I hope that I can educate some people about what atheism is and is not. I also want to tackle hot topics in the news, either directly or indirectly related to separation of church and state.

Thank you for welcoming me to your community.

AtheosAlio

atheosalio wrote:I hope that I can educate some people about what atheism is and is not for me.

Corrected that sentence for you. As an atheist myself I'd rather not like it if you tried to talk on my behalf.

its not a matter of what it is for me or for you. its a matter of atheism itself. what I mean to address is the literal meaning of atheism. for instance, atheism IS a position of belief in regards to whether or not a god(s) exist. Also that atheism IS NOT Satanism, or the automatic acception of big bang or evolution. However I will definitely distinguish when something is of my own opinion, I totally understand where you are coming from though. I wouldn't want someone to claim to speak for atheism and just spit out opinions that clearly do not represent what atheism is.

thank you for posting that so that I was challenged to clarify myself.

atheosalio wrote:its not a matter of what it is for me or for you. its a matter of atheism itself.

It's a category. It doesn't have an own personalized existence besides the instantiation in each and every one of us. That said, your examples are quite general in truth, and would work for me. But then again, I might very well combine my own notion of atheism with some other belief, so when you then say "atheism is not x", then for me that might not be entirely true, because the reasons for why I am an atheist might be tightly woven into the idea that is "x", and distinguishing them is only a logical truth and not a truth made by looking at how things really work in me.

For instance, I might be an atheist because I'm a Marxist, as Marxism is generally (but not necessarily) anti-theistic. This doesn't mean all Marxists are atheists, but it means I am a Marxist and my version of Marxism has made me atheistic (Karl Marx was an outspoken atheist).