InterestedAtheist
Veteran
No, I'm afraid you've forgotten what I said in post #496. Russell's Teapot. Bertrand Russell, the famous twentieth century philosopher, had encountered this "You have to believe I am right if you can't prove me wrong" argument, and countered it with https://www.gotquestions.org/Russells-teapot.htmlso an athiest that is agnostic, does not believe in God but can't prove it (because he doesnt' know, hence the agnostic part?)
If you want people to not understand you because you're speaking archaic English, go ahead. Don't expect anyone else to understand you or agree with you.And as far as definitions are concerned, I typically don't use newer words, because I don't agree with how the world is right now, so I use traditional words.
That is not true in the slightest. You're confusing "losing Christian privilege" with "being oppressed".New words are typically politically motivated and from a particular worldview, usually humanism. Because that is what is running the country right now.
Yes, because they aren't "slanted towards humanism". You just made that up.So I am very offended at things that are new, but political, or slanted toward humanism. Is that wrong?
It's not a "humanist" word, it's a secular word (you may not be aware that "secular" does not mean "anti-Christian" or "biased against religion"; it means "religiously neutral"). In other words, it's just a neutral English word that describes something.I am not a humanist so why should I honor a humanistic word?
But another point is this: if you are not a humanist, why should you be allowed to define what humanists or atheists believe? (They are not at all the same thing, of course, but there is something of an overlap between the two groups). Would you like it if I rewrote the Bible and started to publish a new version?
Quote mining is a pretty good label for something that creationists are well-known for doing, taking quotes out of context in order to alter their meaning. It's a form of lying, which I understood was supposed to be against the Christian religion. And no, it's not "almost impossible to prove", it's extremely easy to prove. All you have to do is show the original quote in context to demonstrate how a quote-miner is taking it out of context. And whether you call it quote mining, falsehood-chopping or pizza-spreading, taking a quote of of context so that its meaning is changed is deceitful.Evolutionists coined a term just for them to use in debates with creationists. Only wiki related dictionaries even use it. But to them it's real, it's called "the quote mine." But we already had words for that, it was called quoting out of context, and miss quoting. But those were not mean enough towards creationists, so lets make a sassy sounding word just to nail them on. "oh you quote mined that." But at worse I quoted out of context, but that is nearly impossible to prove. So it's easier just to say it's quote mined and not deal with it.
Well, if you insist on speaking seventeenth-century English to people, try not to be surprised if people have trouble understanding what you're trying to say.So I don't honor words that are new (if they are politically biased or biased in a humanistic way). So I use the original definitions.
You're mistaken about many things. Language changes as society changes. In this case, regarding the words "atheist" and "atheism" the change has been an improvement; it honours both what people think and reflects the etymology of the word; in short, the word now closer reflects reality. One again, if you were to construct a word to mean "person who lacks belief in God" a-theist is pretty much what you'd have to come up with.If you have a problem with how I define things, you can blame the fact that language is fluid. And that languages change all the time. But I know, you can change it but I can't. I get it.
But if you want to continue speaking in the seventeenth century, instead of English like the rest of us, be our guest. As for me, though, I'll decline your kind invitation to go back in time four hundred years.
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