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anthonyjfuchs wrote
I've used the analogy that atheism is a belief is the same way that not subscribing to any magazines is a magazine subscription.
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Atheism takes a step that the other 'nons' do not - though they could if they were being persecuted or marginalized or whatever - and when you take a positive step, I think that step has the inklings of a worldview. So atheism isn't just non-magazine subscribing, its non-magazine subscribing plus.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2...an_atheist.php
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My point is that nobody becomes an atheist because of an absence of values, and no one becomes an atheist because the dictionary tells them they are. I think we also do a disservice to the movement when we pretend it's solely a mob of individuals who lack a belief, rather than an organization with positive goals and values.
Oh, on a related note, I also get a lot of comments that atheism is a privative attribute which strictly speaking, lacks any specific positive qualities. This is true of the dictionary definition. It is not true of atheism in its actual usage: it carries a lot of accreted baggage, as this little cartoon illustrates.
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