semantics, terminologyIs there a commonly used term for somebody who may or may not believe that there is a supreme being but who refuses to subjugate himself to such a being’s whims? Admittedly, most people in this camp are likely to be in the “not believe” camp, but I would be interested to know if there is a name for people like this.
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I agree that this might not seem to be a philosophically tenable position to many of us, but I would genuinely like to know if there is technical term for this belief system.
I’ll play devil’s advocate and ignore the assumptions in the argument, and the other defenses.
Many atheists are adamantly opposed to self-subjugation or worship of a supreme or supernatural being. They do this on the assumption that, if he exists, he is malign and malevolent. It’s an honorable thing, but I won’t speak of how rationally grounded it is. Would you worship a being that existed outside of the realm of time, and space, that was omnipotent, and omnipresent if he permitted children in Africa to die of AIDs en masse?
As for a term for this kind of person, I’ll go with principled. You’re not talking about disbelieving in an extant entity: you’re talking about the refusal to worship or subjugate oneself. You can invoke the same logic and reasoning that you would use to justify resistance to an oppressive regime.
An idiot. If there was a supreme being, he could squish you like a bug! He could go all biblical on you, set you on fire, turn you into a pillar of salt, have buzzards eat your liver for eternity, make you carry the world around on your back…You don’t want to mess with a supreme being.
Good thing there doesn’t seem to be one, or we’d be in trouble.
The question is full of traps, so it can’t have only one answer:
If there is good reason to believe there is such a supreme being (there isn’t), and the person refuses to subjugate himself to it, then @Satanicpuppy is quite correct. That person is an idiot who does not understand what’s good for him.
If there is no good reason to believe there is such a being, then one cannot possibly refuse to subjugate oneself to it. One can simply state that there is no need to subjugate oneself to an imaginary being. The word “Refusal” implies an active rejection of something which exists. You can’t use that word of a being which cannot be said to exist (since there’s no good reason to believe it does).
Does that answer the question?
First you can’t refuse to be subjugated by something that you don’t believe exists, especially when that something isn’t able to do any subjugating to begin with. So the only word I could think of for someone that could maintain those two conflicting beliefs would be delusional.
As for someone who believes in a supreme being to be subjugated by and doesn’t allow themselves to be subjugated; the word for that would be hypocrite.
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