If atheists are so smart, how come they use such bad language?

1st video. Poor execution, but content is important, which is... Language is critical and the people formerly known as Atheists (now known as Rationalists) use some pretty bad language which not only fails to move the cause forward, it gives the arationalists ammo, thereby helping xtianity become for firmly entrenched.

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• 1/12/12

[saintpine]

You're correct, no one calls himself an atheist to describe himself.

I'm not an atheist when I talking about sport or music, I'm an atheist ONLY when discussing about religion, unlike a Christian that might live their lives as a Christian, no one can live as an atheist, there is no philosophy of life, if offers nothing, and it's not in competition with religion.

To many Christians the word atheist describes me, and they will not listen to any other word to describe myself.

[YahwehNoweh]

@saintpine You (we) must not allow them to decide what we are. Atheism to most xtians = evil doer. We cannot accept that label if we wanna make headway. When you are dehumanized it helps nobody. Imagine if there was no backlash against "nigger". Blacks needed a less derogatory name as step 1 towards civil right. Atheists (I hate even typing it) need a new one too & maybe Rationalist is it. Note that there are still some in the south that dont recognize "black" or "african american"...YET

[julzabro]

I'm proud 2 say that I lack belief in any god by proclaiming that I'm Atheist but I agree it doesn't say what type of Atheist I am. There r amendments 2 the wrd Atheist like; weak/strong, militant, anti-theist etc. Rationalist? I like that. How bout Logician? Mayb it's time 2 really know what kind of Atheists we r individually so we can better explain our postion. I've gotten into many debates over this usually w/ Theists who try 2 make it a faith based religion 2 make us like them.

[YahwehNoweh]

@julzabro Great comment. This vid was just a system test so i didnt prepare. I'lll be doing a vid on the word Atheist in my series about language, 2 vids posted in the series already. And your 100% right in that we need to explain ourselves and that cant be done by saying what we are not beleiving in. Just as religion has sects, so should (arguably) "Atheism". Then just as christians dont call themselves theists, rationalists would not call them selves atheists even tho in both cases it is true.

[SKELTER1SKELTER]

@YahwehNoweh I guess it does boil down to the testability of the claim.

The only way to disprove (or prove) a positive assertion is by testing it. If it's untestable then it cannot be disproved. That leaves you with 'proving a negative' which cannot be done as there is no way to gather proof.

Generally you can prove or disprove a positive assertion. You can only disprove a negative one. I think that's why science tries to disprove rather than prove a hypothesis. It works for both.

[julzabro]

@YahwehNoweh And, really, saying that I don't believe in any god or gods using the term Atheist IS actually saying something about me....it says I didn't drink the kool-aid, I'm rational, I'm a free thinker....maybe even that I'm a rebel and yes, in Theists eyes a heathen but it does speak. ;)

[julzabro]

@YahwehNoweh I look forard to ur vid. ;) Ok, but ya know redefining ourselves or even the word atheism seems like caving in to the whims of lunatics, doesn't it? I mean I have no problem with FURTHER explaining things about myself when needed but changing or avoiding the word Atheism due to the misunderstanding or MISuse of the word by Theists seems like the wrong message.

[YahwehNoweh]

@Ranokian (I TOTALLY agree with your idea that we need to explain ourselves. And using emotionally charged words (like atheist) or words that are hard to comprehend (like atheist), undermine our ability to explain ourselves. BTW Wm Lane Craig (the Hitch of Theism) makes the common mistake of talking about "The Atheist view". If the best mind xtianity has cant understand it... The word is a very confusing one. & when stuff id hard people look for simplistic shortcuts. Great comments thanks.