Orientations toward religion

[JDHURF]

[The Dharma Bum]

[J.K. Gregg]

[Stratego]

[JDHURF]

Not believing in god(s) and believing that there is/are no god(s) are two separate categories. The distinction is obviously missed by many and may appear to many others as a subtle one, but it is actually a very significant distinction.

Someone raised in a remote location where there does not exist any concepts of god(s) therefore does not believe in god(s) (because the concept does not even exist for him or her) but clearly cannot believe that there is/are no god(s) (again, because the concept does not even exist for him or her). One cannot believe in the nonexistence of the concept of something if one is not even aware of the concept in the first place. That is the clearest example of the distinction.

[The Comrade]

belief is agency, non-belief is not agency.

[spacemonkey]

Faith is just another word for confidence, and can be applied to things that have nothing to do with religion. If you put new tires on your car, you probably will have more faith/confidence in making an uneventfull trip then you would have if you left the bald maypop's on.

[exploited]

[Stratego]

[JDHURF]

The difference is, again, that the person states "I do not believe in god(s)" and not "I believe there is/are no god(s)."