A 'religious belief', as far as I am concerned, is defined as 'an ontological hypothesis about the essential nature of the universe'. So of course 'atheist' is one.
Interesting, though, that you write: 'If God turned up on my doorstep tomorrow and told me I was going to hell unless I followed his rules, I like to think I would honestly say "fine, but that's on you, not on me". '
That seems to rest on an implicit premise hidden in that 'told me'. Is this the 'told me' of a parent who tells a child, 'if you don't stop playing with your food, I'll take it away and you'll go to bed hungry?' or is it more like the 'told me' of a parent who tells a child, 'I'm not going to stop you eating all the sweets, but if you do, you'll be very sick and regret it later?'
In the second case, is the child's resultant stomach upset really 'on' the parent? The parent did, after all, do their best to warn the child.
(I understand this is hypothetical, but I thought it an interesting implied premise to make explicit.)
no subject
Interesting, though, that you write: 'If God turned up on my doorstep tomorrow and told me I was going to hell unless I followed his rules, I like to think I would honestly say "fine, but that's on you, not on me". '
That seems to rest on an implicit premise hidden in that 'told me'. Is this the 'told me' of a parent who tells a child, 'if you don't stop playing with your food, I'll take it away and you'll go to bed hungry?' or is it more like the 'told me' of a parent who tells a child, 'I'm not going to stop you eating all the sweets, but if you do, you'll be very sick and regret it later?'
In the second case, is the child's resultant stomach upset really 'on' the parent? The parent did, after all, do their best to warn the child.
(I understand this is hypothetical, but I thought it an interesting implied premise to make explicit.)
S.