Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | A | American Atheist Magazine

Tony Pasquarello's "Atheism and Natheism": a response from George Ricker.

Article Excerpt
Tony Pasquarello's "Atheism and Natheism" (Autumn 2003 American Atheist) raises some interesting points about the definition of atheism and the apparent disagreement that plagues us over the meaning of the word. I offer the following comments on the subject.

Although I have no objection to 'dictionary philosophy' I think it's worth noting there has been a persistent theistic bias evident in most dictionaries and most dictionary definitions. To illustrate consider the following entry:

atheism |A'the*ism|, n. [Cf. F. atheisme. See Atheist.] 1. The disbelief or denial of the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being. Atheism is a ferocious system, that leaves nothing above us to excite awe, nor around us to awaken tenderness. --R. Hall. Atheism and pantheism are often wrongly confounded. --Shipley. 2. Godlessness. (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, [c] 1996)

This bias--evident in the selection of the sentence from R. Hall--is hardly surprising since most human cultures for most of human history have promoted the virtues of gods and religions and deplored their absence. However as usage changes, dictionary definitions change as well. We are beginning to see the "lack of belief" definition show up in places like Encarta, which calls Atheism "unbelief in gods and deities, and Ultra-Lingua.Net, an on-line dictionary which offers the 'lack of belief' definition as the first...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!