Atheism
Please post your comments and suggestions for this article.
Comment by Tim on September 5th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Your etymological explanation for the origin of the word “Atheism” is in my opinion incomplete, because it only explains two of the three components of the word. The word “Atheism” comes from the Greek prefix “α-“, which is an “alpha privativum” that negates the meaning of the rest of the word, the Greek word “θεός” meaning “god” and the Greek suffix “-ισμός” which forms abstract nouns of action, state, condition or doctrine and in this case forms a noun of doctrine or belief. So “Atheism” would be best translated or described as the opposite of believing in a god or gods.
My suggestion would be to formulate the beginning of the entry in the following way:
Atheism (from Greek: a + theos + ismos “not believing in god”) refers in its broadest sense to a negation of theism […]
The following statement in this article is also incomplete:
One of the most common arguments against the existence of the Christian God is the problem of evil, which Christian apologist William Lane Craig has referred to as “atheism’s killer argument.” This line of reasoning claims that the presence of evil in the world is logically inconsistent with the existence of a benevolent God.
It should read: “[…] is logically inconsistent with the existence of an omnipotent and benevolent God.”
I hope my suggestions were useful.
Comment by sam on November 17th, 2010 at 12:36 am
Mahavira was not the founder of Jainism. According to Jains the first Teacher of Jainism in this age was Risabha. From a historical point of view, evidence of the existence of the 23rd Thirthankar Parshva (7th Century BC) has been found.
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on May 11th, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Thank you, Tim, for your feedback. The article has been revised to include your suggestions.
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on June 4th, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Thank you, Sam, for your feedback. You are correct that the term “founder” of Jainism when applied to Mahavira is misleading. The text has been revised to clarify his role.
Comment by Chalas on October 24th, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Dear editor,
Doing some research I went across this article and noticed that Josef Stalin, and Mao Zedong are claimed to be “Materialistic Atheists,” but no citation is made. Would you please provide the source to verify this claim?
Thank you for your help.
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