From @YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET Wed Nov 10 06:32:00 1993 Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by NEBULA.SYSTEMSZ.CS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Wed, 10 Nov 1993 11:39:07 -0500 Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by eli.CS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Wed, 10 Nov 1993 11:38:58 -0500 Message-Id: <199311101638.AA09350@eli.CS.YALE.EDU> Received: from CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU by YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 0800; Wed, 10 Nov 93 11:38:44 EST Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 2437; Wed, 10 Nov 93 11:38:32 EDT Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 11:32:00 EST Reply-To: protin@USL.COM Sender: Lojban list From: Art Protin Subject: Re: TECH: re'enai and the emotion classifiers (long) To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu Status: RO X-Status: lojbab quotes me and comments: >AP> While this may be the most frequent misunderstanding of the term, >AP> I reject the cultural bias and denounce the ignorance that this >AP> "definition" embodies. >AP> >AP> Atheism is the religious belief that God does not exist. > > I hate to say it, but this definition is culturally biased in > exactly the same way mine was. The belief that "God" does not > exist PRESUMES some definition of God, and the definition that > is generally intended is that of the Judeo-Christian god, at > least when the term is used by those brought up under > Judeo-Christian traditions. Wrong! The definition I offered of atheism is not bound to the Judeo-Christian traditions. The disbelieved god is any and all "personal gods" where "personal god" refers to a divine being with a personality. The really big error in my definition is that I left out the '(s)'. The God(s) denied by the atheist are not only the Christian Trinity and Yahweh, but Allah and the God(s) of the Hindus, of Zoroastrianism, of the ancient Greeks, of the ancient Romans, of the ancient Egyptians, of the Norse. Belief that any devine person can exist disqualifies the believer from being an atheist. thank you all, Arthur Protin Arthur Protin STANDARD DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are strictly those of the author and are in no way indictative of his employer, customers, or this installation.