I can understand Mark’s hesitation to accept that “as opposed to atheism” means “not theism” rather than “the opposite of theism.”Well, if you have a group of people and some people believe that a god or gods exist, lets call them theists, whats the opposite of that? Wouldn’t the opposite of theism be the label that describes the rest of the group? If so, then that would be not believing in a god, the standard definition that most, if not all, atheists accept. If not, then I question what you mean when you say the opposite of theism.
To say otherwise is to introduce a different claim; it no longer becomes an issue of the claim A and not A, it becomes an issue of claims A and B. Theism is A: someone who believes that a god or gods exist. Atheism is not A: someone who does not believe that a god or gods exist. Atheism is not equivalent to B: someone who believes that a god or gods do not exist. Anyone who tries to say that the opposite of A is B is mistaken to say the least.
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