Hardships of Being Atheist

[denuseri]

Atheism is still however an unverifiable belief. Which means it shouldn't deserve any greater respect than any other such belief in your book. See the hypocrisy yet?

[Thorne]

Atheism is still however an unverifiable belief. Which means it shouldn't deserve any greater respect than any other such belief in your book. See the hypocrisy yet?

Sorry, the only hypocrisy I see is you expecting me to accept to YOUR definition of atheism, as a belief, rather than MY definition, as a lack of belief. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary, definition 2a states that atheism is "a disbelief in the existence of deity".

Now, I'm sure you can find places which define it as a belief that there is no God. And for some people I'm sure that's true. The problem is that you keep trying to apply that definition to me, which is NOT true. There is a distinct difference in believing there is no God and in NOT believing in ANY gods. I'm not making a statement of faith ("I believe gods don't exist"), I'm making a statement of FACT ("I do NOT believe gods exist.) So I'll make you a deal. You don't try to redefine MY brand of atheism to suit your philosophy, and I won't try to redefine your faith to suit mine. I don't expect you to respect my non-belief, but I do ask you to accept my definition of that non-belief, at least as it applies to me, personally.

And for the record, anyone who categorically states that God does not exist IS stating a belief, and therefore is subject to just as much disrespect and ridicule as I would heap upon those who do believe in gods. I would ask such a person to prove his belief, just as I would ask a theist to prove his.