Religion
In reply to the discussion: Agnostic atheism: a reasonable position on spiritual matters, or the only reasonable position... [View all]AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)it's a positive assertion by the belief-holder. Sometimes I use the analogy of a rocket, where belief is a lift-off, non-belief is sitting on the Launchpad still. (Especially useful since, at any given time, a non-believer may electively choose any faith at all.)
It is a choice, an act of volition. Whether inescapably inculcated by social pressures or not, we are not born with these religions in mind, with faith in place. (We do, as a species, seem to have a predisposition to belief in supernatural things, particularly religion, but that isn't the same thing.)
I do not grok your usage of love. Again, love is an active belief. Can you articulate more, because I don't see the difference here. How can one not be sure if one is in love? If one is not sure, seems to me that person would pretty much be considered to not be in love. And if you said 'you're not in love with him/her' and he/she takes offense to that assessment, that probably clarifies matters right there.
I am an atheist because I do not believe in any claims of supernatural gods. My affiliation with atheist groups/identity is quite another act of volition, separate from the simple fact that I possess nothing anyone would describe as 'belief', in this category. Knowing for sure if there is a god or not is not germane to the question of whether I believe. Since I do not believe, I am an atheist. Even if I was something else, like a humanist or whatever. I'm an atheist because I have not chosen to pick up that weight. The rocket did not launch. I do not believe.
It really is that simple. Any other definition is a cloudy, tortured usage of the word that makes the world suck a little bit more by layering on unnecessary ambiguity.