From: utzoo!decvax!cca!dee Newsgroups: net.followup Title: Re: atheism vs. Communism Article-I.D.: cca.4255 Posted: Tue Jan 18 10:45:33 1983 Received: Thu Jan 20 07:02:07 1983 References: yale-com.660 In reply to Steve Wagar, deriving the meaning of a word from its structure/entymology is cute but frequently wrong. People don't use the word atheist to mean just devoid of theism or belief in a God but to mean an active belief that there is no God. If you want to communicate with people it is normally best in non-poetic applications to use the commonly accepted meaning of a term among your intended audience. For another example of a word that does not have the meaning one might expect from its construction, look at antibiotic. If you didn't know better, you would say it was equivalent to poison or toxic substance since it is anti- anything that is biological (biotic). Donald Eastlake (dee!decvax!cca)