Appeal to Synonyms: Just Say No!

@sonship said
Atheists in prison have argued that they are entitled to rights of other religious prisoners.

I don't think it would be right for prisoners to be discriminated against on account of their belief or lack of belief, unless the exercise of those beliefs [or lack of them] resulted in morally unsound actions against fellow inmates.

@sonship said
Its obvious that you look down you nose at them as second class atheists.

I would disagree with their appropriation of the words "religion" or religious" if that is indeed what they do. And I would debate them.

I debate you all the time, sonship, but I don't look down my nose at you, nor do I think you are a "second class" poster.

Why would I consider an atheist to be "second class" merely because I disagree with him?

Ghost of a Duke has a very different 'brand' of atheism to mine which I have pointed out on many an occasion, and yet I don't look down my nose at him or see him as a "second class atheist".

@sonship said
Let them come here and get past you saying they want to have an atheist church and services absolutely imitating Bible Belt congregations.

Indeed. Let them. It would be interesting.

@sonship said
You are sounding like the Pope already FMF.

"The Pope"?

How so?

Doesn't he believe in and worship the supposed superhuman controlling power known as the Abrahamic God?

How am I "sounding like" him?

@sonship said
Better start a movement of intolerant anti-religious atheist agnostic/atheists (leaning sometimes toward deism).

I don't need to be in any "movement", sonship. If an atheist wants to reject the assertions I made in the OP of this thread, I'd enjoy discussing it with them.

Although it isn't an organized religion like Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, atheism is a religious worldview. With assurance rooted in faith (rather than in proven fact), the theist says "I believe in god (s)/God," while the atheist with equal confidence says "I don't believe in god (s)/God.". Atheism is a religious worldview because it claims to know something fundamental about reality that hasn't been—or can't be—proven.

https://www.thebanner.org › columns › 2019 › 01 › is-atheism-a-religion
[my bold]

Many people have migrated from religious faith and church life to agnosticism, atheism, and secularism. They are the religious “nones” on surveys, or those who call themselves “spiritual but not religious.” Young people today live in a world where it is hard to believe in God. Their grandparents lived in a world where it was hard not to believe in God. And Western secular governments tend to default to the atheistic worldview in an effort to be inclusive.

Just as many Christians would say they are spiritual but not religious but are labelled "religious" anyway by anti-supernaturalists, so atheists who claim Naturalism is there spirituality (or imply so) may also be lumped under a "religious" stigma JUST THE SAME.

They love to dish it out.
They hate it when what goes around comes around.

@sonship said
Just as many Christians would say they are spiritual but not religious but are labelled "religious" anyway by anti-supernaturalists, so atheists who claim Naturalism is there spirituality (or imply so) may also be lumped under a "religious" stigma JUST THE SAME.

The words "religious" "religion" carry no stigma. Christians are called "religious" and Christianity a "religion" because they espouse codified beliefs in, and they worship, the supposed superhuman controlling power known as the Abrahamic God. This set of beliefs is what makes Christians religious.

@sonship said
They love to dish it out. They hate it when what goes around comes around.

I am not "dishing" anything out, sonship. Nor is this a case of "what goes around comes around" in any sense whatsoever. You're being a little paranoid, I think. "Stigma"? You feel I am stigmatizing you?

@sonship said
[quote] Although it isn't an organized religion like Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, atheism is a religious worldview.

I don't see how it is a "religion" in serious-minded and non-tabloid way and I certainly don't see how it benefits in-good-faith discussions between religious and non-religious people on a message board where religions like Christianity, and its supernatural lawgiver underpinning, are being discussed.

I see it as rhetorical gimmickry, obfuscating wordplay, and a case of dialogue-disrupting Appeal to Synonym, which ought to be deemed a logical fallacy if it isn't already one.

@sonship said
https://www.thebanner.org › columns › 2019 › 01 › is-atheism-a-religion

Instead of you trying to persuade me of this - as I see it - weak and disingenuous conversational device that you deploy, get someone from www.thebanner.org to come here and argue their corner.

@fmf said
I don't think it would be right for prisoners to be discriminated against on account of their belief or lack of belief, unless the exercise of those beliefs [or lack of them] resulted in morally unsound actions against fellow inmates.

Do you agree with me here, sonship? It was one of your debating points and I addressed it point-blank but you didn't respond.