The Power to Define...

I've been talking around atheism for a while and have had several people ask me exactly what I believe. Even though this should probably have been Monday's post, let me take some time to explain my definition of an "atheist."

First, some bad definitions:

"Someone who does not believe in God."
"Someone who denies the existence of God."
"Someone who believes there is no God."

For starters, I feel that most atheists are not absolutists. Due to more scientific epistemologies, most atheists - at least, myself - don't believe that there are no gods, they believe that there are probably no gods.

I cannot prove that there isn't a flying plaid unicorn behind me, but I'm pretty sure there isn't. I will keep my mind open to evidence to the contrary, but I am certain enough to live my life as though my office is unicorn-free. I approach religion the same way.

The common threads that makes these definitions truly terrible, however, are semantic: pluralization and capitalization.

In leaving the word "God" as singular, we've placed the discussion into the context of monotheism. By then capitalizing "God," the definitions turn the word into a proper noun. This isn't just some god, it is THE god. Almost subliminally, we've jumped into the Judeo-Christian theology.

Semantics matter. Through definition, the discussion of atheism is suddenly a discussion on Judeo-Christian terms. This makes it easy for those religions followers to make it an us v. them discussion, making it much tougher to have a more open conversation.

When I discuss atheism, I prefer to define an atheist as, "one who lacks belief in gods." An atheist isn't someone attacking your religion, he or she is someone that does not believe in any religion.

This is the same kind of issue framing that can be seen when discussing an "estate tax" versus a "death tax," or when you hear a talk-radio host ironically attacking the "liberal media." If we are to have an open and honest conversation about atheism, we need to start with our own definition.