Myth-Defining Atheism: Common Myths About the Definition of Atheism

Atheists Cannot 'Lack Belief in God' After Learning About God

Christians' objections to defining atheism as simply the absence of belief in gods can extend to blatant misrepresentation of what should be a simple concept in order to divert attention from what atheism really is. In the case of this myth, we find that people will inexplicably distort the simple nature of "not believing the truth of a proposition" in order to pretend that it's not possible to merely lack belief in the truth of someone's claims. This makes the myth easy to refute.

Defining Atheism as a 'Lack of Belief in God' is a Cop Out

I've written a number of articles about how religious theists, but especially Christians, try to argue against the broad definition of atheism as simply the absence of belief in gods. This myth explains why this is so important to some theists: if atheism is just the absence of belief in gods, then it's not making any claims that all atheists must defend, and therefore the only burden of proof lies with religious theists themselves.

Agnosticism is the Suspension of Belief; Atheism Asserts a Belief

One popular tactic used by religious theists (usually Christians) is to confuse the differences between agnosticism and atheism in order to insist that atheists aren't 'really' atheists, but agnostics. There seems to be the hope that by misrepresenting both as two points along a continuum with theism, then atheists can be convinced that they are 'closer' to theism than they realized, thus making the entire evangelization effort easier. Evangelization through deception is far too common.

Atheism is the Denial of God, Atheists Deny God

The most common misunderstanding about atheism involves the definition. Many people insist that atheism is really the denial of the existence of God, but there are two errors here. First, it pretends that atheism is exclusively about their god, the god common to Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Second, it focuses on a narrow sub-set of atheism and atheists to the exclusion of all others. Standard dictionaries list 'disbelief in god or Gods' as the first and primary definition of atheism.