*eyeroll* They're the ones who MADE a fucking identity and movement out of it. If religious people don't get to disavow their assholes, they don't either.
I know right? The problem is, technically speaking they're right--the original meaning of the word is lack of belief in any god, nothing more. New Atheists themselves created the confusion by conflating it with being anti-religion, and when faced with anti-religious shenanigans they escape back to the original meaning which they themselves deviated from. And Christians contributed to the confusion with the negative connotations they attached to "atheism."
It's why I prefer to use the term "anti-theist," to head off confusion and close that loophole. Plus, as an atheist who is not anti-theist, I don't particularly enjoy being roped in with asshole anti-theists*.
*Meaning anti-theists who are assholes, not to say that all anti-theists are assholes.
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Date: 2015-07-13 01:31 am (UTC)I know right? The problem is, technically speaking they're right--the original meaning of the word is lack of belief in any god, nothing more. New Atheists themselves created the confusion by conflating it with being anti-religion, and when faced with anti-religious shenanigans they escape back to the original meaning which they themselves deviated from. And Christians contributed to the confusion with the negative connotations they attached to "atheism."
It's why I prefer to use the term "anti-theist," to head off confusion and close that loophole. Plus, as an atheist who is not anti-theist, I don't particularly enjoy being roped in with asshole anti-theists*.
*Meaning anti-theists who are assholes, not to say that all anti-theists are assholes.