In some Neil Degrasse Tyson interview I watched he said he doesn't call himself an atheist even though he does not believe in God(s) and the reason is that the word atheist even though it means one who does not believe in God(s) has gotten other meanings as a result of it's everyday usage and the behaviour of atheists online.
That atheists online have become known for attacking with arguments and mocking theists every chance they get so the word has come to also mean someone who does that. He said he doesn't do that and he's not okay with identifying with the word for people who do that, so he doesn't call himself an atheist.
That was an interesting take, I myself have a little problem/dilemma with calling myself an atheist too but my reasons are completely different from his.
I don't like the idea of calling myself n atheist even though I do not believe in any religious God and do not believe in the spiritual. The reason I have a problem with the word is that it is too absolute. People always take it to mean that I believe there is no God(s) whatsoever in any form or any kind.
But the truth is my stand is that all the gods ever mentioned by all the religions do not exist. All the religions past and present. (And that's simply because I've looked at their claims and adjudged them false. But of course if anyone can prove their God(s) to me by making their God(s) appear to me and answer a few friendly questions I'm open to it 馃榾.)
But then about whether there is some sort of God who created the universe/multiverse who has never been mentioned by religions, who's probably dead or probably doesn't give two hoots about humans and all the creatures, who's probably not a being but a consciousness or whatever - just not the kind of guy spoken about by religions; whether there is a God like that I do not know and I do not stand to say the chances of that are zero. I just do not know.
So what's the word for this?
One who doesn't believe in any of the Gods humans have talked about in their religions since humans existed but doesn't rule out the possibility that there could be a god different in form from whatever religions have talked about. What's the word?
But how many of us have ever heard of this term? Very rare term, isn't it? When people display their disbelief no one asks them "are you an agnostic atheist?" They mostly ask if they're atheists, and when you say agnostic atheist you usually have to follow that up with an explanation of what you mean.
And let me tell you something else, people of average or lower intelligence would take your refusal to be called atheist to mean you actually believe in God, all the explanation of what an agnostic atheist is would sound like gibberish to them 馃ぃ.
I've heard people tell me countless times that it is either I believe or not that there's no need to start explaining much. Or they ask me straight up "Yes or No?" in order to stop me from explaining my stance.
So, not calling myself an atheist always feel like I'm not communicating what I am accurately, but calling myself an atheist also feels like I'm not communicating what I am accurately.
So that is the dilemma. So far I've been solving it by explaining my agnostic atheism stance to people who are of the intelligence to understand and simply saying yes I'm an atheist to those who wouldn't understand.
But one day a guy I judged to be of lesser intelligence told me something like "Oh, you told me you were an atheist but the other guy said you told him you're not an atheist, that you said it is possible there is a God".
You needed to see how big my face palm was 馃ぃ馃ぃ.
The End
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