What is atheism? Is disbelief in God's existence the popular meaning or the original?

[AgnosticBoy]

According to philosopher, Dr. Michael Martin, atheism as a belief that God does not exist is the popular meaning. He mentions this in his book, The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, pg. 1:

If you look up "atheism" in a dictionary, you will find it defined as the belief that there is no God. Certainly, many people understand "atheism" in this way. Yet this is not what the terms means if one considers it from the point of view of its Greek roots. In Greek "a" means "without" or "not," and "theos" means "god". From this standpoint, an atheist is someone without a belief in God; he or she need not be someone who believes that God does not exist. Still, there is a popular dictionary meaning of "atheism" according to which an atheist is not simple one who holds no belief in the existence of a God or gods but is one who believes that there is no God or gods.

The problem I have with Dr. Martin's view is that the term "atheist" was first used in 1566 according to the source below, and it was defined then as someone who denies the existence of God. Dr. Martin makes it seem as if the denial of God's existence was a modern invention when it was not.

The term atheist (from the French athée), in the sense of "one who ... denies the existence of God or gods",[69] predates atheism in English, being first found as early as 1566,[70] and again in 1571.[71]

Source: Wiki

Another disagreement I have with Dr. Martin's view is that he references the Greek, but the problem is that the term "atheos" was not even a position regarding God's existence. According to the same Wiki source referenced earlier: "It was first used as a term of censure roughly meaning "ungodly" or "impious". So if we want to go back to the Greek, why not also use the same intended meaning as back then?

Contrary to Dr. Martin's view, it seems then that the term "atheist", as a position on God's existence (as first used in the 16th century), referred to someone who denied God's existence. Sure, the Greek meaning is different but it does not relate to "belief" nor "God's existence". Being "without God" or "Godless", esp. as used by believers back then to shun someone, could just mean not following God or living a godless life. That does not mean that you deny God's existence or have a "belief" involving such.

Finally, and most important, not all denials of God are denials of his existence. Believers sometimes deny God while not being at all in a state of doubt that God exists. They either willfully reject what they take to be his authority by not acting in accordance with what they take to be his will, or else they simply live their lives as if God did not exist. In this important way they deny him. Such deniers are not atheists (unless we wish, misleadingly, to call them “practical atheists”). They are not even agnostics. They do not question that God exists; they deny him in other ways. An atheist denies the existence of God.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/atheism

With all of that said, I would still accept that "weak atheism" can become an accepted meaning through common usage just like any other commonly used word. But we should at least be honest or get the history behind the terms right, and not falsely claim or make it appear as if "lack of belief" was its original meaning.

For Discussion
1. Is disbelief in God's existence the popular meaning or the original meaning of "atheist"?
2. Do you agree or disagree with the above details and conclusions? Are any of the sources wrong?

Your thoughts, please!

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Here's a brief history of the term "atheist". It pretty much is the same information from the Wikipedia article except that this source organized it better:

In early Ancient Greek, the adjective atheos (from privative α- + θεος "god") meant "godless". The word acquired an additional meaning in the 5th Century BCE, severing relations with the gods; that is, "denying the gods, ungodly", with more active connotations than asebēs, or "impious". Modern translations of classical texts sometimes translate atheos as "atheistic". As an abstract noun, there was also atheotēs ("atheism"). Cicero transliterated atheos into Latin. The term found frequent use in the debate between early Christians and pagans, with each side attributing it, in the pejorative sense, to the other.

In English, the term atheism was adopted from the French athéisme in about 1587. The term atheist in the sense of "one who denies or disbelieves" predates atheism in English, being first attested in about 1571; the Italian atheoi is recorded as early as 1568. Atheist in the sense of practical godlessness was first attested in 1577. The French word is derived from athée ("godless, atheist"), which in turn comes from the Greek atheos. The words deist and theist entered English after atheism, being first attested in 1621 and 1662, respectively, and followed by theism and deism in 1678 and 1682, respectively. Deism and theism changed meanings slightly around 1700, due to the influence of atheism. Deism was originally used as a synonym for today's theism, but came to denote a separate philosophical doctrine.

Originally simply used as a slur for "godlessness", atheism was first used to describe a self-avowed belief in late 18th-century Europe, specifically denoting disbelief in the monotheistic Judeo-Christian God. In the 20th century, globalization contributed to the expansion of the term to refer to disbelief in all deities, though it remains common in Western society to describe atheism as simply "disbelief in God". Additionally, in recent decades there has increasingly been a push in certain philosophical circles to redefine atheism negatively, as "absence of belief in deities" rather than as a belief in its own right; this definition has become popular in atheist communities, though it has not attained mainstream usage.

Source: https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/a/Atheism.htm