I was just thinking about this. You're being labeled an atheist for not believing there is a God, but people don't get labeled "a-unicornists" or "a-alienists" for not believing these objects exist out there in the world.

So for the most part, I revoke this label and the label agnostic, because I don't believe in a lot of things but admit I could be wrong, which is simply admitting I don't have absolute truth and could be wrong. There could possibly be insects on another planet far away that we don't know exists. I admit this, but I certainly wont believe there is such a planet until I see evidence and I'm certainly not going to call myself an "alien-insect-gnostic".

So I'm curious as to how these labels came about. Does anyone have an answer?

Because human beings are stupid and believe that god actually does exsist and is a real thing. Unlike unicorns or aliens who are generally accepted as not being real.

If you look at the world think about what percentage of people believe in a higher exsistence I have no idea the actual % but I'd say its around 85%. So you should give a name to those who dont believe in god.

The main reason is because there really is no point to make a name for those who dont believe in aliens or unicorns. You could if you wanted to...

I think of it in the same context as asexual. Without sex. Athiest. Without God. Agnostic. Without - gnosticism?

It doesn't seem the least bit slanderous or silly to me. As for it's usefulness in describing a person who is without God, I'd have to hear some alternatives as it's replacement "label" before making my mind up on dismissing the term altogether. It could be hyphenated as religious-skeptic, but that's just too damned many keystrokes. "Skeptic" works just fine too IMO, but some would argue that "skeptic" is too broad a term to suffice it properly.

Since a word is necessary to use in communication to refer to them, we could always borrow the Vacuus Deus from Latin - except it will inevitably be whittled down to "VD" and, you know - that reference leaves much to be desired.

there is a movement to call atheists "Brights"

The suffix "a-" meaning "not" or "without". A "theist" believes in God or many gods." An "athiest" therefore is without God. It makes sense.
The reason for labeling someone an atheist, but not labeling someone an an-unicornist is because the debate over God is certainly much more prevalent than the debate over unicorns. How many people honestly DO believe in unicorns aside from seeing them in their psychedelic trips? If a unicorn debate become a widespread thing then I wouldn't be at all surprised to find labels being tossed around.
As for why we bother labeling people in the first place is subject to it's own debate and probably stems from many different events and people anyway. Some people who believe in God want to label the nonbelievers because they can be dicks like that, and some nonbelievers simply choose to label themselves in such a way so that they are separated from the believers. Other people just follow the progenitors of the terms, and some simply couldn't care less.

Athiests don't believe in nothing because nothing is infact something.

well MR.Kitty55, i wouldnt go so far as calling every human stupid but i agree for the most part. i feel that only people who believe in labels label others, if u dont believe in labels like punk or prep etc than you dont label others or consider you yourself a label. but in religion someone who believes in god would be labeled in that religions name and would label non believers in another name, athiests. the reason why we dont have labels for non believers in unicorns etc is because we dont feel unicorns can affect our lives in such great ways. we label people who dont believe in god because most of the world thinks their god (i say that cause of all the religions in the world) is real because they need something to help them, someone who they wouldnt feel shameful asking for help and who has the potential to help them or to have someone for when they do need their gods help. hence praying during a terrorfying event, or when someones sick in bed with no cure in sight.
and besides, what idiot wouldnt believe in unicorns?! : )

I was just thinking about this. You're being labeled an atheist for not believing there is a God, but people don't get labeled "a-unicornists" or "a-alienists" for not believing these objects exist out there in the world.

So for the most part, I revoke this label and the label agnostic, because I don't believe in a lot of things but admit I could be wrong, which is simply admitting I don't have absolute truth and could be wrong. There could possibly be insects on another planet far away that we don't know exists. I admit this, but I certainly wont believe there is such a planet until I see evidence and I'm certainly not going to call myself an "alien-insect-gnostic".

So I'm curious as to how these labels came about. Does anyone have an answer?
If the majority of people in the world believe in alien insects, and you were in a discussion of said insects, it would be helpful to have a label for yourself that reflects your beliefs.

Um. Since when do most people not believe in aliens? While I've never seen proof that they've actually visited or contacted us in some way, it's unlikely we're the only intelligent life in all of the universe.:confused:

LoL to me the term "Theist" and "Atheist" just sound weird... Thats my opinion though...

there is a movement to call atheists "Brights"

Really? Because I am an atheist and my last name happens to be Bright, so that would be....awesome.

Really? Because I am an atheist and my last name happens to be Bright, so that would be....awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brights_movement

It's not really a movement to change "atheist" to "bright" but to create an umbrella term for many naturalist positions.


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So I'm curious as to how these labels came about. Does anyone have an answer?

My guess would be that since the dominating position is theism, "atheism" becomes a useful, if not necessary, term.

I'd imagine if humans had believed in unicorns through out all (or much) of history, the term "a-unicornist" would have somehow come about.