You’re right, but that doesn’t mean what you’re saying is useful.
At some point, I have to make decisions, including what to say I believe. It is far less confusing to say ‘I believe that god does not exist’ than to say ‘I hold a vanishingly low belief in the class of things you refer to when you say ’God.″
Saying that you believe a thing is true, or don’t believe a thing is true, is not the same thing as saying that your probability estimates are 1 and 0, respectively. That would mean that no evidence would be adequate to change your beliefs, because you have infinite confidence, and that would obviously be stupid. The implication you’re inferring from the term ‘atheist’ doesn’t even really logically follow from the definition. I think the class of atheists that actually do mean that they slavishly and unquestioningly disbelieve in God is small enough to be safely disregarded. Most of the people who call themselves atheists simply hold very very low beliefs in God.
You’re right, but that doesn’t mean what you’re saying is useful.
At some point, I have to make decisions, including what to say I believe. It is far less confusing to say ‘I believe that god does not exist’ than to say ‘I hold a vanishingly low belief in the class of things you refer to when you say ’God.″
Saying that you believe a thing is true, or don’t believe a thing is true, is not the same thing as saying that your probability estimates are 1 and 0, respectively. That would mean that no evidence would be adequate to change your beliefs, because you have infinite confidence, and that would obviously be stupid. The implication you’re inferring from the term ‘atheist’ doesn’t even really logically follow from the definition. I think the class of atheists that actually do mean that they slavishly and unquestioningly disbelieve in God is small enough to be safely disregarded. Most of the people who call themselves atheists simply hold very very low beliefs in God.