I find it odd that when filling out a form that asked me what my religion is one of the choices is Atheist.

What now? That is the that opposite of religion.

  • mechoman444@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 个月前

    I lack a belief in a god or God’s. That is not a world view.

    However my world view stems from human secularism. One does not have to be an atheist to be a human secularist.

    Lacking in particular belief does not define me as a whole person.

    If you don’t believe in unicorns that doesn’t make you a “ununicornist”.

    In the same sense not believing in God doesn’t necessarily make me an atheist.

    But more importantly you’re not using the words you’re using correctly which is why I included the definitions or the concepts you’re missing. I can tell you simply ignore those.

    • bastion@feddit.nlEnglish
      1·
      3 个月前

      Simply because it’s a commons, and I like that, I’m going to use definitions from Wikipedia.

      I think we differ on what a world view is. Secular Humanism is, to me, more accurately described as Wikipedia describes it - a philosophy, belief, or life stance. These have to do with what you identify with, or values and ideologies you live by. And yes, secular humanists need not be atheist.

      A world view is much more broad than a philosophy, belief, or stance, or the having or not having of any particular belief.

      So yes, atheism is not a world view. But one can have an atheistic world view, without atheism being a world view. The world view and the individual who holds it are not defined in total by any particular facet of that world view, any more than “a brown-haired person” or “a person who has no cats” are complete descriptors for any single individual.

      So “an atheistic world view” simply references one of a large number of world views, all of which fundamentally lack a belief in gods.

      Yes, lacking in a particular belief does not define you as a whole person. I would not expect that it did, even if you held atheism as a belief, as in the less broad senses of atheism as defined on Wikipedia.

      If I don’t believe in unicorns, it totally makes me a non-unicornist, which is clearly only relevant when discussion or actions come up that involve unicorns, like when I’m posting in a non-unicornist or unicornist context. But it doesn’t necessarily make me an anti-unicornist.