Unbelief (or non-belief) and disbelief are two words that seem to be conflated by many folks on the internet. I’m not sure if this is down to a misunderstanding of their definitions, or just due to how they are quite similar words. I’ve recently written a few articles that are worth reading before this article,…
Conflated and Misunderstood Terms – Volume 5: I Don’t Believe
When people say “I don’t believe” it is unclear what they are saying. When many folks say this, they are discussing a psychological state rather than disbelief in a normative logical sense. But what does that mean? Logic and Belief Propositions By belief proposition, I am essentially saying believing a proposition to be true, or…
Dirty Words – Conflated and Misunderstood Terms Volume 4: Belief, Faith and Evidence
My fellow atheists and I often have extreme reactions to certain words*. I think due to the debate and some of the people we attribute them to, we have a knee jerk response. Whilst I understand why in some instances, it’s because we have a single minded view on the definition, in others it is…
Conflated and Misunderstood Terms – Volume 3: Objective / Subjective – Morals / Morality
This article is to define and discuss objective and subjective, morals and morality. As with any article on AiR we don’t always agree. Where science is concerned and the evidence is irrefutable we of course accept and believe it to be true. When it is opinion or something philosophical we may have differences. As such…
Conflated and Misunderstood Terms – Volume 2: Theism, Atheism, Agnosticism
Often in debate folks identify their position as one of the 3; Theist, Atheist, Agnostic. Some folks will sometimes use a combination e.g. Agnostic Atheist/Weak Atheist. It might surprise you, as it did me, that some of the definitions of terms we use are not strictly accurate. Language does indeed evolve, there is a difference…
Conflated and Misunderstood Terms Volume 1: Evolution
Conflated and Misunderstood Terms There are a number of conflated and misunderstood terms floating about the internet. Some of these terms are colloquialisms, others are just a misunderstanding, while the bulk used have been taught erroneously to further an agenda. Communication is a very important thing. If we cannot interact with each other on the…
