Atheism is a lack of belief? They claim it is, we hear this all the time. It's the Atheists slam dunk to do a hands off to the evidence of God.
Let's examine the claim.
From dictionary.com
Atheism
a·the·ism
–noun
1.the doctrine or belief that there is no god.
2.disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.
OK its a disbelief of things, not a lack. So lets examine the definition of disbelief.
From dictionary.com
disbelief
dis·be·lief
–noun
1. the inability or refusal to believe or to accept something as true.
2. amazement; astonishment:
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merriam-webster.com defines it as:
: the act of disbelieving : mental rejection of something as untrue
Synonyms: incredulity, nonbelief, unbelief
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Thesaurus.com has an interesting entry,
disbelief
Definition: doubt, skepticism
Synonyms: atheism, distrust, dubiety, incredulity, mistrust, nihilism, rejection, repudiation, spurning, unbelief, unbelievingness, unfaith
Antonyms: belief, trust
atheism
noun
Definition: belief that no God exists
Synonyms: disbelief, doubt, freethinking, godlessness, heresy, iconoclasm, impiety, infidelity, irreligion, irreverence, nihilism, nonbelief, paganism, skepticism, unbelief
I see more iconoclasm then anything else.
Sure does not sound like Atheism is a "lack of belief" of anything but instead a REFUSAL to accept things as true. Its a positive stance my friend. As Choosing Hats puts it, an implicitly positive claim. Its intellectual dishonesty to say otherwise. If that is indeed the case, and it certainly is, then as Gary pointed out, "Atheism is a chosen metaphysical position, therefore a religious position."
Slam Debunked!?
bit.ly/lackofbelief