A=no Theos=God All the word "atheist" means is one who does not believe in God. If you are "nonreligious" that means that you do not beleive in a God and are therefore atheist by definition.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

You have a lot of shit fucked up, right there. The prefix 'A' means 'without, and 'theos' means 'belief in a god'. Theos does NOT mean 'God', as in one from a monotheistic religion. Nonreligious does not mean Atheistic. Both terms even have very limited descriptive power.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Alright, you just slightly tweaked what I said, but it still means the same thing. An atheist is a person who doesn't believe in a diety. Nothing more, nothing less. If you are "nonreligious", you obviously don't believe in a diety and therefore fall under the umbrella of atheism.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Non-Religious means you don't believe in religion. You can still believe in a god.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Beleiving in a God makes one religious. Even if you shun organized religion and don't go to church/temple/whatever, you still beleive in a God and are therefore religious.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

There are three religious constants. The atheist creation story is the big bang theory. The atheist death story is that you will no longer be able to think and rot. The atheist philosophy is that you are free to live however you want, and basically there are no rules. Therefore, atheism is a religion. Nonreligious means not relating to religion. I take that to mean you have no religion at all, not even atheism.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

What BadKitteth said. The ONLY THING that atheism means is that you don't believe in a god/diety. All the other stuff that you wrote is optional. An atheist can think those things, but trying to fit every atheist into your crude stencil is just as incorrect (and dare I say ignorant) as someone saying that all Christians follow the Pope and take the Bible literally, word for word.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Non religious is more like agnostic. Though all atheists are non religous, not all non religous people are atheist. A non religous person is just someone who doesn't worship anything. You can still believe in a higher power, you just don't worship that higher power. All atheist don't believe in the possibility of any type of god. If they do, they got their terms mixed up and are actually agnostic.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Agnostics are Atheists because they don't believe in God. It's a simple definition. If you don't believe in God, you are an atheist. End of story.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Agnostic people usually believe there may or may not be a god. Though they do not practice any religion they still accept that they can never know. Atheist think there DEFINATELY is not a god. They either believe they know how the world was created or the believe they don't know, but it wasn't a god. See the difference?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I see the difference between those two kinds of people, but they are both still atheists. The "agnostic" person thinks that God may or may not exist. He still doesn't explicitly believe in a God, and is therefore atheist. Even though Atheism isn't a religion, it is analogous to one in that Atheist is the title, and "nonreligious", "agnostic", and other things are sects.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Atheist means without god. If you accept that there might be a god you are not without god. Nonreligous would be the title and agnostic and atheist would be the sects.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Agnostic people are "without god" because they aren't even sure that He exists! I'll say it once more. If you are "agnostic" you do not beleive in a god. You believe in the possibility of a god, but still do not believe in one. Therefore, you are an atheist. Agnostic people are "

by Anonymous 14 years ago

You are not "without god", you are "with the possibility of a god." That's what separates agnostics and atheists. What you're thinking is like saying, "All trees are plants, thus all plants are trees."

by Anonymous 14 years ago

That's not at all what I'm saying. You're just desperately trying to sidetrack the discussion with you're "with/without god" thing. The fact is that agnostic people do not believe in a God and are therefore Atheists. No need to make it any more complex than that. My work here is done, good day to you.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

You could try having a little respect for non religous people and try not grouping them all together. I know you're determined to be right, but you're not always right.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I have respect for them, considering that I'm an atheist.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

"If you accept that there might be a god you are not without god." If I accept that there might be intelligent life on Mars, that doesn't mean that I definitely believe that there is. I'm just demonstrating the fact that it is impossible to prove that something does not exist. It's the same case here.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

No, atheism is not a religion, you pulled these three religious constants out of your ass.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

No. No no no. There is no inherent belief system to being an atheist- there is a lack of one. I don't know where you get your information, but you are mistaken. I do not "believe" in the big bang theory- I entertain the idea, because there is compelling arguement/evidence for the idea, but I believe nothing that hasn't been proven. I consider myself a specific type of atheist defined as a rational empiricist-the meaning is implicit in the name. That "creation vs. Big Bang" thing is wholly made up by religious people, so that when they say we can't prove it, we seem on equal ground somehow... I guess... who can guess the motives of the irrational? Anyway, not all atheists feel this way, as I'm sure you will see very soon. I'm willing to bet I won't be the last commentor disproving your post. I'm guessing you're religious- I could be wrong, but it's common of the type to throw the word "belief" around so lightly, as if believing in things with no proof is an everyda...

by Anonymous 14 years ago

... everyday thing.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Atheism is not a religion (as you claimed in your comment) but the post is correct in that for example you can have a religion and be an atheist like Buddhists (Buddha is not considered a god) and you can be a non-religious theist like most deists are.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Being Atheist means you do not believe in God or any higher power. Non-religious could mean a few things. Personally, I just think it means you accept there's a higher power but you don't worship it or anything.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

What I think, and it might be already said, is that an athiest does not believe in God or any higher being. Everything about that to them is not true. A "nonreligious" person could be agnostic, as in not knowing if there is or is not a god and/or higher being. Therefor, I think they are different.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Agnostic does not mean "I don't know if there is a god or not," it means "whether or not a god exists is impossible to either prove or disprove." Agnosticism is compatible with some religions. I don't think you can be an agnostic Christian, since one of the core pillars of the Christian doctrine is that "God definitely exists and he died for your sins," but there may be more flexible religions out there.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Oh yah I was wrong. But I still think nonreligious people are different than atheists

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I'm nonreligious and I'm not an atheist at all. Being nonreligious means you do not participate in a religion. I used to participate in Christianity but I I became so digusted with the leaders (all denominations) that I couldn't stand it anymore and left.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

atheist -noun a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings. agnostic -noun 1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as god, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience. 2. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as god, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience. Nonreligious -adj not of or relating to religious beleifs and practices

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Woops ! Agnostic 2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

^thank you for the definitions. I don't know why people don't just look these things up before commenting.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Thank you for this post! When ever people ask me what religion I am, I say I don't follow any particular religion, they always label me as an atheist. It's such a negatively connotated word though that I hate it as a label. It makes it just as close minded as other religions, Making it the "hipster" kid of religions. There is a world of difference between the two.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Atheistic = nonreligious. end/post

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Atheism is the nonreligious religion.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

(Your+name+(optional)): Atheism means you don't believe in a supernatural being or God or afterlife of any sort. Agnostic means you have no certain religion.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Does anyone else find it funny that morgan freeman is talking about religion?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I did.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Does it matter? Both are going to hell

by Anonymous 14 years ago

not according to them, they're not.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Nonreligious? You mean agnostic.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

yes, some may see it as subtle, but there is definitely a difference, both between atheism and agnosticism and between atheism and non-religiousness.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

This is in my bio on my profile. Weird. Anyway, there are several different religions in my family, plus some atheists. My parents decided that it would be better to just not belong to any particular religion. They just told me that I could believe whatever I want to believe and it would be okay with them as long as I am respectful to everyone else's beliefs. Right now, I'm not entirely sure of what I believe in, so saying I'm an atheist isn't really accurate.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

There is such ignorance in this thread. You can not call atheism a religion. Atheism is fundamentally the idea that a divine creator belittles the elegant reality of the universe. Atheism is not a 'belief' in non-belief, rather than a search-for, or love-of knowledge. Hence it is a philosophy. Agnosticism really comes down to, 'you are a pussy.' (Hitchens could agree with me on that one.) What agnosticism states is, "Well I'm not really sure, there isn't enough evidence either way, but in case he is there I might as well have this hope." This is a huge fallacy because if your god really existed he would be able to see through you and know you were only believing in him out of fear; which fear is also a horrible motivation. Religion and the idea in deities is a virus that has plagued the world too long. Children are being infected at birth. It does not abide by 'free-thought' to allow something like that to go on. Religion demoralizes the thought process, obliterating the scientific method, and destroying thousands of years of evidence under one name- God. You can not prove, or disprove for the matter, anything that is simply NOT there. If it doesn't exist it doesn't exist.

by Anonymous 13 years ago