> Generally atheists claim to be skeptical of all religion and mysticism regardless of whether it claims a "creator god". Is it true, though, that that's what

> Generally atheists claim to be skeptical of all religion and mysticism regardless of whether it claims a "creator god". Is it true, though, that that's what atheism means? As an atheist myself, I'm not sure it is. Certainly doesn't seem true - seems like someone who is atheist is simply more likely to also be areligious and aspiritual, possibly as a result of rationality. But if you want to be pedantic, you can try making a case to redefine the term. In fact, I've found that self-described "theists" and "atheists" are both smart enough to know that theism involves a god, not just any religion or spiritualism or mysticism or belief. Indeed, ask any layperson on the street what it means for someone to be atheist, and most answers will say that it means "they don't believe in god". > My point is that almost all people hold unexamined beliefs Maybe, but certainly not all as irrational as theism. Your post tried to conflate concepts like humanism (essentially, "be excellent to each other", hardly an "unexamined belief"), which don't require magic, to the belief of theism, which does - this conflation didn't work for the reasons described above: both may involve principles of one form or another, but only the latter is magical and supernatural, and thus less rational to believe true. If we're both on the same page there, we can move onto other topics, like: > I think the rule you are describing is not well defined at all.