what is the most important aspect of the interaction between belivers and non believers

[TM99]

246. I strongly disagree.

The agnostic accepts the proposition and says 'maybe'. The apathetic atheist accepts the proposition and rejects it because they are not concerned.

And when the individual begins to ask what is meant by god or gods then they are rejecting the proposition itself. That is in part what it means to be an ignostic.

The AA is playing word games. "Denial", "Disbelief" and "lack of belief" are all negatives that answer the proposition - Is there a god or gods? They want to change the definition now to suit their purposes. That is all.

You quoted me and went off on an intellectual tangent that had nothing to do with my quote. If an atheist answers the proposition in the negative, then the other 'is' statement follows - they have rejected the byproducts of answering it to the affirmative. Those are religion, dogma, ritual, etc. There is no 'ought' involved. If they accept those and practice them then there is a psychological incongruity.

If we accept even the most basic definition of 'belief' as presented on Wikipedia - "Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a conjecture or premise to be true" - then absolutely atheists, like everyone else, definitely have beliefs. They may or may not overlap with theists and religious followers. They may or may not be the same as other atheists or agnostics. I did not say that atheism is a religion or a belief system. But to claim that atheists have no belief is bullshit. I will add that New Atheism is definitely developing into a belief system with tenets, organizations, 'prophets', etc. That is a fascinating new phenomena to me particularly since it was not in existence when I was a younger man.

In that regards, Starboard Tack is dead on and AtheistCrusader is wrong. Belief is a word like love. It has a variety of meanings and context is important. I love my mother. I love my girlfriend. Both use the word 'love' and if I loved my mother like I do my girlfriend, well...... Atheists are 'non-believers' and theists are 'believers' and what they 'believe' and don't 'believe' in is the same. Yet each individual member of each group also has a set of beliefs and knowledge that unite them in their definable term. And beyond that further, each individual also has beliefs and knowledge influenced by a variety of experiences, knowledge, and cultural influences. So to say with absolute certainty that atheists have no beliefs is just bullshit. Sorry, it is.