There are so many different things you can call yourself if you don’t believe in a god or gods, there’s atheist, agnostic, skeptic, humanist, freethinker, naturalist, non-theist, bright, antitheist, polyatheist, and probably a few more. Since all the different labels people choose are not exclusive of each other, when I prepared the reader survey I wanted to avoid the possibility of someone who identifies as a humanist not checking the “atheist” box and putting “humanist” in the other section, so I lumped as many of the different labels as readily came to mind.
One reader is curious about one of the labels on that list, polyatheist. This was the first time she’s seen it so she wants to know what it is and if anyone actually uses it. I first heard it on Freethought Radio when they were talking about the someone who used polyatheist to describe him and his daughter on a billboard in the Out Campaign in Tulsa, OK.
A polyatheist is someone who doesn’t believe in many gods.
Whether or not it’s a workable or useful label is a different story. Atheism isn’t about a specific god or gods, it’s the disbelief in a class of mythical beings. When you add modifiers to a broad term like atheist it doesn’t make it stronger, it actually weakens it, unless you add even more modifiers to essentially get back to the strength of the original term. For example, Christians don’t believe in many gods, but they do believe in one (or is it three), so technically Christians are polyatheists.
For polyatheist to have even the strength of atheist it would need more modifiers added to it, such as panpolyatheist (someone who doesn’t believe in all of the many gods), but that’s just getting ridiculously complex considering how well atheist works. Please excuse the error if I chose the wrong Greek prefix, it’s been more than six years since I took Greek and I haven’t used it much since dropping out of the seminary four years ago.
So what’s a polyatheist? It’s someone who thinks that atheist is too common and wants to stand out by creating a new label, but who doesn’t have an adequate understanding of the language being used to create said label to keep from making it say nothing.
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"A polyatheist is someone who doesn't believe in many gods."
For polyatheist to have even the strength of atheist it would need more modifiers added to it, such as panpolyatheist (someone who doesn't believe in all of the many gods), but that's just getting ridiculously complex considering how well atheist works. Please excuse the error if I chose the wrong Greek prefix, it's been more than six years since I took Greek and I haven't used it much since dropping out of the seminary four years ago."
You used the proper Greek word elements, but it seems to me that apolytheist would have been better for what you were going for (the privating force of the a- prefix applies not just to the-, but also to the poly-).
A polyatheist sounds like someone who accepts many of the common definitions of atheism (e.g. "lack of belief," "humanism and atheism as atheism plus," etc.).
The word panpolyatheist (or, more fully, pantopolyatheist) strikes me as a contradiction (all or just many?).
I am an atheist, which has the implication that I am an apolytheist. But I am also a polyatheist if we use the definition that I suggested above.
"So what's a polyatheist? It's someone who thinks that atheist is too common and wants to stand out by creating a new label, but who doesn't have an adequate understanding of the language being used to create said label to keep from making it say nothing."
How about neonomatatheist (neo-, onomat-, a-, the-)? ^_~
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You made some very good points. However, with your corrections, apolytheist
is what the person using polyatheist is going for. I disagree that a
polyatheist would be someone who uses all the many labels common to
atheists, polyatheist is just meaningless.
You are right that someone going with polyatheist is really just a
neonomatatheist…I really like that and will have to use it more, not for
me, but just for people who aren't content with conventional labels.