Lack of Belief: Words: "atheist," "agnostic," "apatheist," and "antitheist"

lackofbelief:

First, atheism is NOT a religion.  For this reason, unless it appears at the beginning of a sentence, or is being used as a proper noun, the word “atheist” should never be capitalized, unlike, say, “Christian,” “Muslim,” or “Buddhist.”

Atheism is, rather, a position about religion.  It is a rejection of it.

This has been said many times, by many people, but it bears repeating:  atheism is a religion … in exactly the same way that NOT collecting stamps is a hobby.

Here are some other words which also apply to me, in addition to “atheist,” which describes me accurately, simply because I possess no belief in any deity….

• agnostic — I am an agnostic, because I do not insist that I know I am correct when it comes to religious matters.  I cannot prove that no gods exist.  Similarly, I cannot prove that there is no Tooth Fairy.
• apatheist — I am an apatheist, because I don’t waste my time worrying about such pointless questions as, “But what if God is real?”  Honestly, I cannot even take such questions seriously.
• antitheist — I am an antitheist, for I hold the position that theism is a great source of human suffering, and I oppose it for that reason.

[posted to lackofbelief by Robertlovespi]