The Opposite of Atheism...

studiorat

As an experiement, I was considering believing everything I'm told regarding all things spiritual. From gods and spirits to crystals and healing, pagan, christian, muslim you name it. I want to believe the lot! All I need is faith.

So is there a word for this opposite of Atheism?

A fool?

eightyfish

Sounds like you need an electric monk.

Mena

A Theist? (Although I prefer Jammy's response)

robindch

eightyfish wrote: »

Sounds like you need an electric monk.

To wit:

Douglas Adams wrote:

High on a rocky promontory sat an Electric Monk on a bored horse. From under its rough woven cowl the Monk gazed unblinkingly down into another valley, with which it was having a problem.

The day was hot, the sun stood in an empty hazy sky and beat down upon the gray rocks and the scrubby, parched grass. Nothing moved, not even the Monk. The horse's tail moved a little, swishing slightly to try and move a little air, but that was all. Otherwise, nothing moved.

The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe.

Unfortunately this Electric Monk had developed a fault, and had started to believe all kinds of things, more or less at random. It was even beginning to believe things they'd have difficulty believing in Salt Lake City. It had never heard of Salt Lake City, of course. Nor had it ever heard of a quingigillion, which was roughly the number of miles between this valley and the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

The problem with the valley was this. The Monk currently believed that the valley and everything in the valley and around it, including the Monk itself and the Monk's horse, was a uniform shade of pale pink. This made for a certain difficulty in distinguishing any one thing from any other thing, and therefore made doing anything or going anywhere impossible, or at least difficult and dangerous. Hence the immobility of the Monk and the boredom of the horse, which had had to put up with a lot of silly things in its time but was secretly of the opinion that this was one of the silliest.

How long did the Monk believe these things?

Well, as far as the Monk was concerned, forever. The faith which moves mountains, or at least believes them against all the available evidence to be pink, was a solid and abiding faith, a great rock against which the world could hurl whatever it would, yet it would not be shaken. In practice, the horse knew, twenty-four hours was usually about its lot.

TheManWho

An unatheist?

common_parlance

Gullible?

I have it, I have it... An a-atheist, an aatheist.

Dave!

Atheist

Zombrex

For any religious people who have stumbled in here it should probably be pointed out that people are not calling believers gulable or stupid, these are being applied to a particularly type of believer who believes all supernaturla things they are told.

I mention this to save the inevitable debate that will sure follow of how religious people believe for "Very Good Reasons" (TM) and how dare you call us stupid etc etc

Iwasfrozen

I don't see how being called Gullible is any worse than being called Dammned.

Dades

Wicknight wrote: »

For any religious people who have stumbled in here it should probably be pointed out that people are not calling believers gulable or stupid...

Methinks people are just being a bit 'smart'.

common_parlance

Actually, I think you aren't looking for the opposite of 'atheist.' I think it's the opposite of 'skeptic' you're looking for, which a bit of eugoogling reveals to be a gull (n. as in gullible) or a believer (coincidentally a homonym for believer meaning theist).

Or, if you want to stick to the Greek roots, an askeptic.

studiorat

Ahh! The Electric Monk, of course. It's been a long time since I read Dirk G.

I had expected the gullabale and foolish comments. So I suppose this proves my psychic powers are starting to kick in.

Anyway, this week I have been mostly believing in the power of Water!!! http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm

pts

studiorat wrote: »

Anyway, this week I have been mostly believing in the power of Water!!!

homeopathy?

studiorat

pts wrote: »

homeopathy?

No, even stranger...

Some "scientist" Masaura Emoto or something reckons water has a kind of consiousness or something. Photos taken of water crystals given good vibes look nicer than water crystals that were sent bad vibes!!

More holistic detective work is needed...

eightyfish

studiorat wrote: »

So is there a word for this opposite of Atheism?

Well what's the opposite of not believing in fairies?

The Mad Hatter

studiorat wrote: »

No, even stranger...

Some "scientist" Masaura Emoto or something reckons water has a kind of consiousness or something. Photos taken of water crystals given good vibes look nicer than water crystals that were sent bad vibes!!

More holistic detective work is needed...

I don't believe it, but I did use his photo of a water molecule 'listening' to the Goldberg variations as a cover for my printed score of the Goldberg variations, 'cuz I thought it was pretty.

komodosp

The opposite of an atheist? A pantheist?

Anyway, this week I have been mostly believing in the power of Water!!!

And why not? 1 litre of water contains 90,000,000,000,000,000 Joules of energy!

Zillah

komodosp wrote: »

The opposite of an atheist? A pantheist?


And why not? 1 litre of water contains 90,000,000,000,000,000 Joules of energy!

Where did you get a litre of antimatter?