Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who denies the existence of God, or of a supreme intelligent being.
- noun A godless man; one who disregards his duty to God.
- Godless; atheistic: as, “the atheist crew,”
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who disbelieves or denies the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being.
- noun obsolete A godless person.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A person who believes that no
deities exist (especially, one who has no other religious belief). - noun broadly A person who rejects belief that any deities exist (whether or not that person believes that deities do not exist).
- noun loosely A person who has no belief in any deities, such as a person who has no concept of deities.
- noun loosely, uncommon A person who does not believe in a particular deity (or any deity in a particular
pantheon ), notwithstanding that they may believe in another deity. - adjective Of or relating to atheists or
atheism ;atheistic .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun someone who denies the existence of god
- adjective related to or characterized by or given to atheism
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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"Our hope it to encourage non-religious members of our community to not shy away from the term atheist and for believers to recognize that atheists are not anti-theists."
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To be clear, the term "atheist" is not synonymous with the terms "non-believer" or "none" a catch-all category used by many researchers.
Joyce S. Dubensky: Who's Still In The Closet? The Future Of Prejudice Joyce S. Dubensky 2011
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Just as we thankfully no longer use the world colored, we should abandon the term atheist.
Jeff Schweitzer: The Faux Rage About a False War on Christmas Jeff Schweitzer 2011
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The word atheist is analogous to the denigrating word "colored" to describe African Americans, which was meant to say they are colored relative to the pure "standard" of white.
Jeff Schweitzer: The Faux Rage About a False War on Christmas Jeff Schweitzer 2011
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The word atheist is analogous to the denigrating word "colored" to describe African Americans, which was meant to say they are colored relative to the pure "standard" of white.
Jeff Schweitzer: The Faux Rage About a False War on Christmas Jeff Schweitzer 2011
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To be clear, the term "atheist" is not synonymous with the terms "non-believer" or "none" a catch-all category used by many researchers.
Joyce S. Dubensky: Who's Still In The Closet? The Future Of Prejudice Joyce S. Dubensky 2011
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Just as we thankfully no longer use the world colored, we should abandon the term atheist.
Jeff Schweitzer: The Faux Rage About a False War on Christmas Jeff Schweitzer 2011
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The solution is to abandon completely the use of the term atheist, just as polite society no longer uses the "N" word to describe African-Americans, "Rag Heads" for Arabs or "Wet Backs" for those south of the border.
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I'm not comfortable with the term atheist either, but would put myself into the agnostic category.
Believe in me, help me believe in anything (What if No One's Watching?) 2009
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I don't even use the term atheist or agnostic anymore.
Evolution and Faith in the Blogosphere James F. McGrath 2009
renumeratedfrog commented on the word atheist
A person who laughs at people for being stupid dogmatists, but gets terribly upset when someone points out his own stupid dogmatism.
November 8, 2012