Atheists, the merriam-webster dictionary defines the word Atheist as...?

"One who denies the existence of God"



Wouldn't a definition like "One who disbelieves in the existence of God" or "One who lacks belief in God" sound a little more accurate and oh I don't know, non-biased? You know, like a dictionary is supposed to be?



Your thoughts?Atheists, the merriam-webster dictionary defines the word Atheist as...?
Dictionaries are written by people. Most people who speak and write English are Christians. Therefore, chances are the English-language Merriam-Webster dictionary was written by Christians.

We're just lucky it doesn't define atheist as: "Evil, soulless, Hell-bound, fornicating drug-addicts who go thorough life indulging their every anti-social impuse with no regard to the well-being of those around them."
The definition sounds a little biased. Perhaps better would be "Someone who is bright enough to see that the existence of a god is pretty improbable".



Edit: To answer a question further down, to say that one denies the existence of something is quite from saying that you don't believe in something. The former insinuates that god does exist but the person refuses to acknowledge it, while the latter makes no such insinuation. You aren't a moron btw.Atheists, the merriam-webster dictionary defines the word Atheist as...?
that seems to be just a language game. an atheist is one who lacks belief in God. lack of belief = not believing = disbelieving.



i'd say that i don't believe in the lochness monster. that's the same thing as me saying i disbelieve in the lochness monster.



UNLESS one is saying that they don't believe in God, but they admit that God may still very well exist. if that's the case, then saying that they don't believe in God is a bit misleading. a better statement would be that they're open to God's existence, but they lean heavily towards the view that he doesn't exist.Atheists, the merriam-webster dictionary defines the word Atheist as...?
Saying denies is not a politically correct word for the definition. Saying denies implies that God exists and that Atheists choose to not acknowledge his presence or existence. Saying disbelieves or lacks belief is saying that they simply don't believe as if he didn't exist at all to them. I'm not an Atheist, but saying denies from disbelieves does give the definition a different connotation. Honestly, an Atheist doesn't believe in God or any form of god or gods.
A) dictionaries give usages, not definitions



B) almost every dictionary I've seen gives multiple listings for atheist or atheism - one being the strong atheist position you cite and another being the weak atheist definition that is much more common - the absence of belief rather than belief in absence.
Saying you don't believe in god is borderline agnostic, but I can see what you mean. I am not offended by this definition of atheist because it's fits my thoughts on god perfectly, but I know not all atheist completely deny the existence of god. Which again sounds like an agnostic person.
Yourdictionary.com is worse



"atheist

n.



an atheist rejects all religious belief and denies the existence of God; an agnostic questions the existence of God, heaven, etc. in the absence of material proof and in unwillingness to accept supernatural revelation"





Apparently Hindu's are atheist
Just remember that Noah Webster once wrote a version of the Bible changing all the sex and violence words into euphamisms, so as not to discourage "proper" young women from reading scripture. All the rapes became "lewd acts" and all the smitings became "ends", etc. Always consider the source.
If you look up the word "deny", you may find that the word can be defined as refusing to acknowledge a premise. Atheists deny the premise that there is such a thing as a "god". I don't see a problem. "Lack" implies some sort of deficiency that doesn't really exist.
You are correct. But can you imagine the fuss in the country if they now try to change it? The fanatics are more entrenched in the US echelons of power than you think. There are 80 million bible-thumping Christians in the US bible belt, for a start.



I recommend you change to the Oxford dictionary.
Try a non-biased source like the Oxford English dictionary next time. Would you base your definition of Jewish on a Nazi dictionary?



Atheism == (A) (Theism) == (Without) (God belief)
The dictionary was probably written by Christians. Their influence is everywhere.



"disbelieves" is more politically correct than "denies". i don't see anything wrong with "one who does not believe in a god", because there are over 40,000 gods worshipped by humans.
That definition is indeed way off. Not because of the word "denies" vs "disbelieves", but because of the word "God".



An atheist is somebody who doesn't believe in any god or gods. That's more accurate.
Look up Apatheist



An apatheist is a type of atheist who, rather than not believing in any gods because the arguments for them are weak, simply doesn't care about the existence of any gods and goes about life as if none existed.
The online dictionary doesn't have the definition.



"one who believes that there is no deity"
A more accurate definition is "one who does not believe in any spiritual facet of any religion." There's more to being atheist than not believing in a god.
I don't know but I think it is funny that an "Atheist" believes that God does not exist, but if you put a space between the A %26amp; the T you have:



A theist, who believes God does exist.



Strange language.
Err...not the on-line one: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar…
It is fairly apparent that the writer of that definition had a bias. While it would be more accurate written as you suggested, it's not a big deal.
ok, i'll admit, i'm a moron...but what is the difference in denies belief, disbelief and lack of belief?
Merriam-Webster has always carried a bias. That's the benefit of controlling the language. (the American side of it, that is.)
I am not interested in dictionary definitions. They are usually far too broad and allow the inclusion of people who's beliefs go against everything an actual atheist thinks about the nature of reality.
Words are slippery things. Unfortunately, we have to use them to communicate.



Turn it around and ask yourself what word matches that definition.
It should state...

"One who lacks belief in any single or group of gods,"
Yes, I've seen that definition before. However, you must remember not to confuse M-W with a _real_ dictionary.
No, I do not disbelieve. I deny that god exists as defined by Judeo-Christian and Islamic texts describe. Atheism does not exist. How can I NOT believe in something that does NOT exist?
It is defined as one who denies because they don't believe. If they don't believe, they say God doesn't exist. Saying no is denying. They may not be running around saying "God's not real," but they are denying that to themselves.
Well disbelieving and denying the existence of is pretty much the same thing. An atheist does deny the existence of a greater being... it seems accurate enough to me
Denies is a strong word, let us protest!



Hate mail from me inc.
Yeah, it would definitely sound less biased, but I don't care enough about it to write a letter :p
Hmmm.. i thought about it and you're right. The dictionary is implying that God DOES exsist and atheist are simply in denial.