Varieties of irreligious experience ~ New Humanist
The idea of atheism has never been as clear as you might expect. Etymologically, it ought to refer to the idea that there is no such thing as God, or an attitude of indifference or defiance even if there is. In practice, however, it has usually been used by religious sectarians to hit out at anyone suspected of doctrinal deviancy, or - in one version of a message received by Moses - those who "go a-whoring after strange gods". Socrates, for example, was denounced as atheos by his fellow Athenians, though they knew he was a believer in his way, and when he tried to defend himself he felt, according to Plato, as if he was "fighting with shadows." When St Paul talked about "atheists" ("strangers ... without God in the world") he did not mean unbelievers, but traditionalists who had not heeded the gospel of Christ; and Christians got a dose of their own semantic medicine when they found themselves arraigned as "atheists" under the provisions of Roman law.
The idea of atheism has never been as clear as you might expect. Etymologically, it ought to refer to the idea that there is no such thing as God, or an attitude of indifference or defiance even if there is. In practice, however, it has usually been used by religious sectarians to hit out at anyone suspected of doctrinal deviancy, or - in one version of a message received by Moses - those who "go a-whoring after strange gods". Socrates, for example, was denounced as atheos by his fellow Athenians, though they knew he was a believer in his way, and when he tried to defend himself he felt, according to Plato, as if he was "fighting with shadows." When St Paul talked about "atheists" ("strangers ... without God in the world") he did not mean unbelievers, but traditionalists who had not heeded the gospel of Christ; and Christians got a dose of their own semantic medicine when they found themselves arraigned as "atheists" under the provisions of Roman law.
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