On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 04:42:13PM -0500, Randi128 at aol.com wrote: > I meant what I said. Atheists believe there is no god. Period. To say that > you no longer, or do not beleive in god does not make you an atheist it makes > you someone who has lost their faith. You still acknowledge Gods existance > you just no longer have faith. I must apologize if I used the two Bull pockey. I never _had_ faith. To me God is some weird concept that other people believe in, just like the Hindu gods or the ghosts and spirits of more shamanistic/animistic peoples. I've found arguing over precise definitions of 'atheist' and 'agnostic' to be useless; they mean different things to different atheists and agnostics, and the dictionaries, pace Steve writing _Dragon_, tend to kindly offer all the definitions in use, so you can't even run to them, unless you do so selectively. E.g. I use 'atheist' as Greek 'a-theist', not a theist. I'm not a theist, God isn't in my life, or on my radar. Others emphasie 'a-theism'. A friend of mine has indistinguishable beliefs from mine but prefers the term agnostic where I prefer atheist. We've since moseyed in the direction of 'godless', which has less baggage and seems clearer. Because we sure are godless. -xx- Damien X-)