Comments on: The AHA Conference in Pictures – Reflection Part Two http://reedsecular.org/2009/06/05/the-aha-in-pictures-conference-reflection-part-two/ Promoting Freethought at Reed College Since 2005 Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:05:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Patrick Julius http://reedsecular.org/2009/06/05/the-aha-in-pictures-conference-reflection-part-two/#comment-237 Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:15:43 +0000 http://reedsecular.org/?p=1198#comment-237 Lobdell seems a bit confused. You write: “It was his conviction that the true debate was not between atheism and theism, but whether or not someone believed in a personal god.”

These are the same thing! Theism *means* belief in a personal God. Deists and pantheists are really non-theists; what we usually think of as “atheism” is really slightly stronger, to adeism. But once you get to the point of deism, there really isn’t much point in arguing.

Lobdell realizes this, but then so does Dawkins (read his preface to the God Delusion about “Einsteinian religion”), and I suspect Harris and Dennett would concur, if not Hitchens as well. So really I don’t see where the disagreement lies.

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