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From: smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Absurdity Continued
Message-ID: <906@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Jul-84 15:54:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: ulysses.906
Posted: Tue Jul 17 15:54:33 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Jul-84 02:55:20 EDT
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
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	From: rjb@akgua.UUCP (R.J. Brown [Bob])
	Subject: Re: Absurdity Continued
	Message-ID: <890@akgua.UUCP>
	Date: Mon, 16-Jul-84 07:59:36 EDT

	Steve,
	 
	 So What ?!

	 If you operate your life or your organization as if
	 God doesn't exist ( according to MY observation)
	 then you are an atheist according to MY definition.

	 I was sharing MY opinion.  If you think it outrageous or stupid
	 well of course you are welcome to tell me or when you see my
	 sign you can avoid the frustration by judicious use of the "n"
	 key.

	 Big time clergymen don't cut no ice with me Jim ! (no apology for
	 the grammar)

	 Remember, all the Biggies were on the other side against Jesus.


Can we at least keep our terminology straight?  Someone with a different
perception of the Deity than you may be a heretic, an apostate, or a heathen.
Someone who agrees with your perception but doesn't act it may be a hypocrite,
a sinner, or a practitioner of some form of "civil disobedience" (i.e., doing
something against the rules deliberately, but willing to accept any consequences).
None of the above categories qualify as "atheist" -- one who does not believe
in G-d.  Please note that in my earlier submission, I did not list several
groups you mentioned, because I agree that they espouse atheism -- for example
the Comunist Party.  I'll even agree that the dreaded secular humanists (as
exemplified by the signers of the Humanist Manifesto) are preachers of atheism.
But "atheist" is not a perjorative; it's merely a word with a rather precise
meaning.

So -- call my earlier complaint a semantic quibble.  Maybe it should have been
in net.nlang rather than net.religion.  But if we're going to call each other
names, let's at least agree on what we're calling each other.