Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: BVAUGHAN@pucc.princeton.edu (Barbara Vaughan) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: passive evangelization of "atheists" Message-ID: Date: 15 Nov 89 08:58:20 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 15 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , ejh@sei.cmu.edu writes >In article ELEE6CK%JANE@uhvax1.u >>I have a few questions, naive as they may be: >>Isn't atheism essentially simply the act of being contrary, >>i.e. the *worship* of the ungod? >no. atheism, by definition, is the lack of belief in god... I think this is incorrect. Atheism is the BELIEF that there is NO God. Your definition could equally well describe someone who is totally indifferent to the existence or nonexistence of God. In fact, I think very few nonbelievers could be described as atheists. Most of the nonbelievers I know don't know and don't care whether there is a God. I'm not sure that such people can even be called agnostic. Barbara Vaughan