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Does it comfort you to think that?Cold be the hands and the heart of the man who is away from God.
Cold be the hands and the heart of the man who is away from God.
I've come to the decision that I'm no longer going to call myself an atheist. People attach too many negative things to the term. I'm now simply a person who thinks it's highly unlikely there's a God, and doesn't follow any religion. And uses science to understand the world. As for the meaning of it all, I'm an existential nihilist. So the reason I even get up in the morning is just to learn more about the universe of which I'm a part of. I guess understanding is my life's goal.
Cold be the hands and the heart of the man who is away from God.
I saw the title in new posts and I thought: Hey did my prayers work that fast? I thought you got saved.
Atheism and agnosticism are part of two separate dichotomies. Agnosticism is a knowledge statement. Atheism is a conclusion. I'm an agnostic atheist.To me one sounds like "I'm not sure" and the other sounds like "I'm sure".
So what happens when people start attaching negative things to the term "existential nihilist"? You gonna quit calling yourself that to?I've come to the decision that I'm no longer going to call myself an atheist. People attach too many negative things to the term. I'm now simply a person who thinks it's highly unlikely there's a God, and doesn't follow any religion. And uses science to understand the world. As for the meaning of it all, I'm an existential nihilist. So the reason I even get up in the morning is just to learn more about the universe of which I'm a part of. I guess understanding is my life's goal.
"The roadblocks of indifference, fancied self-sufficiency, prejudice and defiance often prove more solid and formidable for these people (those who have lost faith) than any erected by the unconvinced agnostic or even the militant atheist."
- from Step 2 in 12 and 12
I am curious as to why you would care so much about negative things others might attach to the term atheist that you would abandon it as descriptive of yourself because of that? I do not understand that position. As both a christian and a conservative, I know how many negative things others attach to those labels yet I also know what I mean when I say I am those things. I would not discard the labels due to someone else's ignorant or purposely skewed characterization of them as something other than what they are. If you do not believe in a god, then I would encourage you to refer to your position as that of an atheist and if others see that as indicative of something more sinister than simple lack of belief despite your innocence of anything other than simple lack of belief that is their problem not yours. Further, you now run the risk of people thinking you are devious and disingenuous because you refuse to call yourself what you are in order to "pull the wool over their eyes". Since that practice, i.e. of to mis label or redefine oneself or one's position in order to deceive others, has become very popular in political circles, people are naturally suspicious of how people use words. What you are doing may well be seen, by those same people you are trying to placate, as being even worse than being "an atheist".
So what happens when people start attaching negative things to the term "existential nihilist"? You gonna quit calling yourself that to?
You're still an atheist to me, but there are no negative things that I personally attach to the term.
I can understand labelling oneself with a more meaningful label than "atheist". I call myself a eudaimonist, after all. Atheism says very little about oneself. You are probably better off with a more descriptive label.
In any case, good luck with calling yourself an "existential nihilist". Sorry to say, but I do attach negative things to that term, and I doubt that I am the only one.
eudaimonia,
Mark
I don't personally subscribe to this logic when it comes to labels, but more power to you.I've come to the decision that I'm no longer going to call myself an atheist. People attach too many negative things to the term. I'm now simply a person who thinks it's highly unlikely there's a God, and doesn't follow any religion. And uses science to understand the world. As for the meaning of it all, I'm an existential nihilist.
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