Here's an interesting thought. Most people who don't really think about these things too deeply often think that being an Atheist is akin to being religious in that we Atheists also have a belief system, i.e. that we are just another kind of "ism" like Theism or Creationism or Conservativism etc. Sometimes this even extends to a silly idea that because Atheists don't believe in a God or Gods that they must believe in Satan or some other anti-God figure and all that implies. Now, this idea might be true if you read the word as, Athe-ism, if that were correct you'd have to conclude that Atheists believe in something called "Athe"! Although this sounds like a lot of fun, in a kind of Athe vs Yahweh way, unfortunately it's not true.
The whole idea stems from a misunderstanding of the word and what it actually means, it shouldn't be read "Athe-ism" it should be read "A-theism" and in Latin (from where many of our words are derived) it simply means "not theism", in fact if you put an "A" in front of most words it just means "not" that thing! There are several widely used Latin prefixes still in use today, for example,
a - without, lack of, not
ante - before, earlier, in front of
anti - against, opposite of
auto - self, same
So, an Atheist is simply someone who isn't a Theist, or in other words does not believe that Theism is true or justified, and that's it! In every other respect an Atheist could hold any other belief, they could be left wing, right wing, nihilistic or simply an ordinary person, a lack of belief in theism implies nothing else.
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