nekidchickens (12 Nov 2009) RichardDawkins.net Forums

The entymology of ‘atheism’ is incorrect and incomplete (although completely dishonest). The privative ‘a-’ … expresses negation or absence; ‘theos’ means god; ‘-ism’ is a suffix that forms abstract nouns of action, state, condition, doctrine. Put ‘em together!

Perhaps this fellow should have done the math himself before making a public spectacle of his ignorance, wherein he ended up proving the truth of the very thing he was attempting to argue against. If we do the math he asked us to, we find:

(‘a-’ + ‘theos’) + ‘-ism’ = godless action, or godless state, or godless condition, or godless doctrine.

In short, it does not produce “lack of belief in gods”—confirming Thiefe’s very argument!

The etymology that Thiefe reproduced from credible sources was in fact correct and complete—and entirely honest. The term being negated is theos which, very simply, is ‘God’ and therefore translates into English as ‘godless’ or without God. There is nothing incorrect about this. And adding the suffix ‘-ism’ does not prove any incompleteness (or dishonesty), which the math above showed. Fundy atheists say the darndest things, don’t they?

(Note: This fellow was objecting to an article written by Chris Thiefe at EvilBible.com [1] who impolitely but nevertheless accurately attacked the painfully common butchering of the term ‘atheist’. And the title of this FASDT is a play on ‘entomology’ which pokes fun at his incorrect spelling of ‘etymology’.)

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