Knife,
First, if I misinterpreted your tone, I apologize. It came across that way when I read it, and it seemed consistent with your views on those with religious beliefs. I can assure you that I have no problems with disagreement. If I did...would I be posting this?
So, on the first point above: you were responding to specifically to
ustwo, in a medium where everyone could read it. Its not exactly whispering, so to speak. "Oh
Ustwo, you know how those people need their relgions..." To a certain extent, I agree with you. It's the way the delivery came across to me, I suppose. I once said religion isn't the opiate of the masses, it's the placebo. I happened to say it to someone I later found it is pretty religious. I don't know if I ever apologized for that, but if I didn't I do now. (if
onesnowy is reading this, you were that person. Sorry)
I realize that you were disagreeing with
will, and the only reason I brought that up is because of the tone that came across in the above-mentioned post and the post on the macs - the posting in that thread provided me with context which I confess probably influenced my interpretations here. I'm not getting sidetracked on that here, and I don't want this thread to get sidetracked with this.
I also know where you got the definition from, becuase you linked it the
first time. The whole thing started because I think I've seen a different definition elsewhere. I posted that
definition and asked if anyone could confirm. Basically, you said no. The rest follows from there. I mentioned that I found it on an atheist site, because the site I recall finding on was devoted to the topic of
atheism. However, I can't find the classifications right now. It may not be of major importance, but I simply was interested in the terminology that others used to describe their belief systems. For instance, I would trust the classifications given from a site run by people who study and write about atheism, as opposed to classifications given from a site run by people who study and write about wood varnish.
Really much ado about nothing. Again, if you feel I misrepresented the tone of your post, I apologize. As I said, it didn't seem like an isolated incident, but it really doesn't matter. I'm just a wittle pigglet passing through, etc.
And finally, I dont' see the point of getting militant about atheism, as much as I understand not giving into theistic interpretations of reality where they are obviously not appropriate. Situations like Intelligent Design taught in biology classes and the like.