rone at ennui.org (definitely what) writes: > Erik Dahl writes: > I find this recent trend towards defining atheism as a religion of > non-belief very disconcerting. Instead of maintaining that atheism > is "belief in no god," or "belief there is no god," can't we say > instead that it is "no belief in god?" For me, at any rate, it is > more about not believing in something than believing in something > opposed to something else. > I'm aiming for accuracy of the term; I don't wish to offend anyone. > > That's traditionally called agnosticism. Since I've got the OED up, here's what they have to say about that: agnostic: A. n. One who holds that the existence of anything beyond and behind material phenomena is unknown and (so far as can be judged) unknowable, and especially that a First Cause and an unseen world are subjects of which we know nothing. [Suggested by Prof. Huxley at a party held previous to the formation of the now defunct Metaphysical Society, at Mr. James Knowles's house on Clapham Common, one evening in 1869, in my hearing. He took it from St. Paul's mention of the alter to 'the Unknown God.' R.H Hutton in letter 13 Mar. 1881.] Atheist is much simpler: 1. One who denies or disbelieves the existence of a God. And dates to at least 1568. -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net / http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info