Dammit I know this is unfair, but I still am not able to comment on my own blog. (This is my own fault, not that of the site or my webmaster.)
Andrew commented:
I could agree more, and less. But, as I can't be bothered making a case, I'll quote myself the last time I tried (http://just-another-f--kin-wellingtonian.blogspot.com/2007/05/practice-of-not-collecting-stamps.html):
"The title of this post [The Practice of Not Collecting Stamps] is an aside to the regular line about atheism being another belief system. This is something my brother quoted to me over the phone (i.e. if you recognise the actual quote or spot inaccuracies in my version of it, don't bother to point it out): "Atheism is a belief system in the same way that not collecting stamps is a hobby" - if you didn't collect stamps, would you join a club for people who don't collect stamps? I suppose you could say there are belief systems that entail atheism, but atheism isn't the system itself."
I totally disagree. I do not think that this is a valid analogy. It seems like sophistry to me.
Atheism is not merely the absence of belief. I do not believe in gods. I also do not believe that there are no gods. Hence, despite not believing in gods, I am not actually an atheist.
An atheist believes that there are no gods. I'm sorry if you don't like being in a belief system, but there's a little saying about having cakes and eating them.
If stamp collecting is theism, then in this particular model there is no atheism. Unless it's someone who does not believe in stamp collectors.
This should be a comment, not an entry, but I felt the need to address this particular point.
Posted by pearce at September 5, 2007 5:45 PMWell, I'm not surprised at this given the lack of effort I put into my own comment. And of course the thing about cut'n'paste is that I took more than one point in my quote; so first I'll focus on the point about atheism being entailed in belief systems, rather than one in itself.
Would it surprise you if I said the same of theism? At the very least, if I had to say they were belief systems, I'd still object to the claim they were each a single unitary system.
Mostly though I think this is quibbling over terms, and I might as well admit that I never subscribed to the terms you set out from "to clarify" to "atheists believe in the absence of something". Some do. Some don't. You call some of them agnostics, because here you're setting the terms, not them. Self-identification may return a different result.
For myself, I like neither label, as they're both contaminated by their prefix, defined by the absence of something I wouldn't chose to define myself by.
The point about the stamp-collecting model not having atheism is valid within your terms, but as for the part about an atheist in this model being someone who does not believe in stamp collectors, I don't understand the logic. Walk me through it if you think it's relevant.
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