Rad Jackson said…

"I was wondering... what, in your mind, qualifies people as a "non-theist"?  It's a strange, almost precarious term, as it implies much but says little.  What does a man of science, as yourself, have to say about such things?"

Hmmm. Yes, indeed almost 'precarious' perhaps.

After all, it was the theists who invented the word 'theist' and then 'non-theist' and 'atheist'--and it has been christian theists who have been writing the dictionaries of the last centuries.  

I have wondered for some time what changes would result if someone like me or you or Christopher Hitchens etc. were allowed to define some key dictionary words used by atheists.

Words like non-theist and atheist, as used by theists, are used to imply a situation of being against theism. But rather we are surely pro-rationality, pro-reason, pro-logic---and it is because of all that, plus the ultimate in applying common sense, it turns out that we aspire to intellectual reality and honesty instead of the unscientific faiths founded by illiterate Bronze Age goat herders and desert camel drivers. I am now thinking that this has the makings of a worthy topic for discussion. 

hey! PA is pretty nice - can get a bit too chilly in January or February but what can ya do?

Hows Worcestershire? Have you ever been to the US?