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atheist/agnostic/theist definitions?

S

Shalmanese

Platinum Member
is there any "official" definitions of any of them or is there any other words that describe a particular sub set of these. So far the following words mean this to me:

Atheist:
1. a person who firmly does not believe in god
2. a person who does not believe god matters to them
3. a person who cannot be bothered to believe in god
4. a person who believes that god is an invention of humans

Agnostic:
1. a person who firmly believes that you can never tell if there is a god or not
2. a person who does not know if there is a god or not
3. a person who believes partly in god
4. a person who cannot be bothered to make up his mind as to whether he beleives in god or not

Theist:
1. a person who firmly believes in god
2. a person who cannot be bothered not believing in god
3. a person who believes in god but does not think it matters
4. a person who treats the existance of god as an academic scenario

This is about all of the meaning that I can think of when the word is used in a CONTEXT

BTW: theist is interchangable with christian/ jew/ muslim/ voodoo etc
 
I'm pretty sure that agnostic means the true nature of God is unable to be ascertained, so there is no way to know for sure if there is a God or not. I'm not sure about Atheist and Theist, although I can think of a number of religions, where the existance of God is not even mentioned or an issue.
 
Check out these links (and the entire site... a wealth of good unbiased information):

Agnosticism
Atheism

as stated in the link about atheism, theism is the antonym of atheism. Therefore, theism means belief in god.

l2c
 
Technical dictionaries define how words should be used instead of how they commonly are misused. I didn't find a technical definition for agnosticism.

A-the-ism

Root words: A-without; The-god; Ism-belief. The meaning from the root words is "Without belief in god" It does not mean any certain god such as Yahweh, which the Xians call "God" and it does not require denial, simply a lack of belief. Proving gods do not exist is completely impossible, but then so is proving that pink unicorns don't exist.


The-ism

Root words: The-god; Ism-belief. SO it means "belief in god."


Agnosticism

(someone) not knowing, or believing that it is impossible to know, whether a god exists
 
I think if one is looking for technical terms the best place would be a philosophy dictonary ... i am not sure if theology has as dictonary but they probably do ... as for what is listed in the orginal post for the definitions they seem to be pretty close to technical meanings though

my 2 cents
 
ag·nos·tic (g-nstk)
n.

One who believes that there can be no proof of the existence of God but does not deny the possibility that God exists.
adj.
Relating to or being an agnostic.
Noncommittal: ?I favored European unity, but I was agnostic about the form it should take? (Henry A. Kissinger).

-----------------------------

Or, here's my personal belief -

de·ism (dzm)
n.

The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Hmmmm, I've considered myself agnostic, but deism is an interesting way of looking at it. Thanks for sharing that vi_edit.

Where does one go about learning these types of things? College religion classes?
 
Where does one go about learning these types of things? College religion classes?

The best thing to do is research all the main "themes" and come to your own conclusion.
 
BoberFett

Check out the essay on Deism here. Rousseau and Voltaire were deists. So were John Quincy Adams, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison Thomas Paine, and George Washington.

This site is an excellent resource.

l2c
 
Dedpuhl

While that may sound simple enough, you still have to know what the "themes" are. I had never heard the term 'deism' before today.
 
Boberfett

Books. Read lots of books on religion in general. You will run across all sorts of interesting terms you never heard of before...
 
Bober, it really depends upon the college and the professor. I actually learned about Deism in a world history class. The Deists really sprang up in Europe in the 1600's in retalliation to the Catholic and Protestants. They were considered athiests by the traditional theists, but were actually far from it. The Deists used the symbol of a watch or a clock to represent their faith. It is a belief based upon mechanics - just like the inner workings of a clock.

here's more info

It's really hard to nail down a class in particular that you could take to learn about the different beliefs. Philosophy really deals more with the various beliefs/non-beliefs in god, while theology may teach you more about the individual religions.
 
According to my philosophy prof

theist.

Beleives that god exists. That is he beleives that teh truth value of teh statement God exists is true.
atheist disbeleives that god exists. That is he believes the truth value of the statement God exists is false.
an agnostic does not believe in God. That is he cannot tell the truth value of the above statment and reserves judgment.

Also your definitin of god may vary.
 
It seems to me that, while many of the founding fathers of the U.S. were deists, they weren't classic deists. They reference "Providence" rather frequently.

In other words, they didn't really believe that the Deity totally abandoned the universe to the natural process. His principles of life, liberty, etc. were "ingrained" and nations that ignored them doomed themselves to His just judgments through the processes of history.

Hence you find phrases like "the Law of Nature and Nature's God." But "laws of nature" probably refers more to "laws of human society" in many of their writings. If we don't conform our society to these laws, we perish just as surely as if we refused to respect the laws of gravity and stepped off a cliff.

Hence, many of the early American deists were of the same ethical mindset as Judeo-Christian theists.
 
The real problem I was having was trying to use these words in conversations without having to specify what exactly I meant, If you look at them, A person who is sure you cant tell whether god exists and a person who does not know whether god exists is a pretty big difference so I was wondering whether there were any subsets?

deist looks like a promising word and I will be using that as part of my regular vocabulary.
 
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