Is Atheism a Belief System?

Definitions:

belief: noun

- the feeling of being certain that something exists or is true. 
source: Cambridge Dictionary of American English

- a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing
- something believed  ; especially : a tenet or body of tenets held by a group
- conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence
Source: Merriam-Webster Online

believe: verb

- to think that something is true or correct
source: Cambridge Dictionary of American English

intransitive verb 1 a: to have a firm religious faith b: to accept as true, genuine, or real 2: to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something 3: to hold an opinion : think

transitive verb1 a: to consider to be true or honest b: to accept the word or evidence of 2: to hold as an opinion : suppose
source: Merriam-Webster Online

faith:  noun

a high degree of trust or confidence in something or someone source: Cambridge Dictionary of American English

1 a: allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty b  (1): fidelity to one’s promises  (2): sincerity of intentions
2 a  (1): belief and trust in and loyalty to God  (2): belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b  (1): firm belief in something for which there is no proof  (2): complete trust
3: something that is believed especially with strong conviction  ; especially : a system of religious beliefs
source: Merriam-Webster Online

Update 6/16/2009 – I realized I didn’t define “Belief System”

Belief System: noun

faith based on a series of beliefs but not formalized into a religion; also, a fixed coherent set of beliefs prevalent in a community or society source: Dictionary.Com

1. a set of beliefs, especially religious or political beliefs, that form a unified system 2. organized societal beliefs: a collection and organization of beliefs prevalent in a community or society source: Encarta

Summary of Belief/Believe/Faith:

A personal conviction of the truth/correctness of an idea, ideal, or opinion especially when based on the examination of evidence.  Groups of people are often marked by sharing the same body of beliefs [tenets].

Do Christians believe there is a God? Yes.

Do Atheists believe there is no God? Yes.

Can either prove [scientifically] that God/gods exist? No.

Are both Christianity (Religion) and Atheism belief systems?  Yes.

Arguments:

I don’t believe in god. I’m an Atheist.  It’s called ‘disbelief’.  I choose to ‘disbelieve’.

Response:

To disbelieve one thing, is to believe another.   You substitute something you can believe in for something you cannot believe in.

Honest Questions about a Parable for anyone reading this…

I wanted to gauge people’s opinions of this parable with a few questions. There are no right or wrong answers. I just want to hear people’s thoughts about it.

Read on…

Summary of Paul’s Message from Paul Himself

Stumbled across this today while studying something else.

Kind of jumped out at me for some reason.

Read on…

Mosaic Laws and Torah and do they change?

This post is a carry over from a forum that I am on.

Paladin and I were discussing OT Laws and wanted to know if I could spot any glaring problems.  I asked him to clarify since I didn’t want to assume anything.  He agreed and provided me this example:

Paladin wrote:

Examples: The death penalty is seemingly suitable for men having long hair, for children not obeying their parents, for cursing your parents, for (men) not being circumcised, for eating bloody meat, for girls not being virgins when wed, working on Sundays etc etc. Again, it’s not exactly very nice thing or considered of particular high moral standards to kill people for trifling matters like these.

This is my [Chris] response proposing two different ways to approach the issue.

Chris wrote:

To get the proper understanding of this (for me, you and any others reading this) we can do 1 of 2 things:

1.) We can look at it through the lens of today, with our current belief systems, individuality, progress (or lack of), our laws and personal belief systems.

That doesn’t seem the appropriate way to get the correct view of the scriptures we’re working with, does it?

OR

2.) We can go back in time and try to put those laws into context and then work forward.

I [Chris] submitted that option #2 would be the correct method…

Paladin Responded:

Interesting  except heres a problem. The laws from God are still the laws from God After all if God is unchanging then his laws should be good from the outset not obviously flawed.

See the problem is God is supposed to be eternal timeless and so on. But now looking at laws supposedly from God Time is suddenly a factor. So you have to explain that one.

I want to thank Paladin and the others for contributing.  This is not a “win/lose” conversation.  It is an honest, ongoing conversation between two (primarily) individuals who are openly and honestly discussing concerns/questions/comments regarding scripture.

Question: Why is faith in God Bad?

I posed this question on a board that I am a member of and wanted to copy a reply I received there and my reply.  The words in bold are the original reply and my reply to it.

I’m hoping that it will move on here and remain easier to follow.