From: Matthew James Gering <mgering@ecosystems.net>
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 17:09:19 +0800
To: "Cypherpunks (E-mail)" <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>
Subject: RE: Democracy... (fwd)
Message-ID: <33CCFE438B9DD01192E800A024C84A19284693@mossbay.chaffeyhomes.com>
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> Try pantheism. If one fundamentaly believes that god does not 
> exist, which clearly involves faith, then yes it is a religion.

Then I guess you could say that pantheism is an atheist religion, as
opposed to a theist religion.

My nice definition of atheism is reason over faith, science over
mysticism, basically an anti-religion. While that may be etymologically
unjustified, it does accurately reflect the views of the majority of
people I know who call themselves atheist, myself included.

Notice my brackets:

a- (without) + [theos (god) + ismos (practice or doctrine)]

not

[a- (without) + theos (god)] + ismos (practice or doctrine)

> By your view an agnostic can't be religion

No, and it's not, it's like standing in the doorway of a religion, not
sure whether to enter or leave, perhaps practicing but not believing.
Such indecisiveness annoys me, but it accounts for the majority of the
population.

	Matt