My point (however it came across) was not meant to be that you grammatically can't use both. Saying "I am an athiest" makes it sound like its own cult. Like its an organisation one belongs to.
Akin to saying "I am Australian". It's just a part of what I am, not what I belong, not the definition of me. Saying I am an Australian is just as correct, but conveys a different impression (imho).
Lots of atheists would argue that atheism is a type of 'religion' or cult, as contradictory as that sounds.
Being atheist entails subscribing to a certain set of beliefs, spearheaded by one major belief. Now replace atheist with, say, Jewish, or Christian... the sentence still makes sense - because it is still something that people believe and ultimately use to define themselves.
I suppose it's kind of like a bit of a club, so I would imagine that saying "I am an atheist" is as semantically correct as the other one.
So glad that you've stopped with the holding-the-camera-at-arms-length-and-taking-sulky-pictures-of-oneself posts.. they were a tad tiresome.
3 comments:
It's a noun too - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/atheist
So, "I am an atheist" is just as correct as "I am atheist".
True.
My point (however it came across) was not meant to be that you grammatically can't use both. Saying "I am an athiest" makes it sound like its own cult. Like its an organisation one belongs to.
Akin to saying "I am Australian". It's just a part of what I am, not what I belong, not the definition of me. Saying I am an Australian is just as correct, but conveys a different impression (imho).
It's subtle. It's semantics. So lets argue it!
Lots of atheists would argue that atheism is a type of 'religion' or cult, as contradictory as that sounds.
Being atheist entails subscribing to a certain set of beliefs, spearheaded by one major belief. Now replace atheist with, say, Jewish, or Christian... the sentence still makes sense - because it is still something that people believe and ultimately use to define themselves.
I suppose it's kind of like a bit of a club, so I would imagine that saying "I am an atheist" is as semantically correct as the other one.
So glad that you've stopped with the holding-the-camera-at-arms-length-and-taking-sulky-pictures-of-oneself posts.. they were a tad tiresome.
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