The Intolerance of the word Atheism

[toddaa]

These threads pop up on DU from time to time and they always devolve into heated arguments over which dictionary is the divine truth. I jokingly refer to these people as dictionarianists.

Ignoring the complexities of how atheists have come to claim that word for themselves and to argue that they are not really atheists, is no different from telling a Democrat that they are not a real Democrat because the don't agree with Obama. The No True Scotsman fallacy works both ways. What I find upsetting about these arguments over the definition of the word atheist, is that those insisting on using some antiquated definition they found in a dictionary often don't bother to listen to how the majority of atheists use the word. Atheists opinions don't matter and our voices are ignored.

If we cannot define who we are, then in what way can you claim that you are tolerant of atheists?

Signed,
a militant agnostic