Unfortunately, there is another analysis that is at least equally
valid.
Theism = theos + ism, god + belief.
Atheism = a + theos + ism, absence + god + belief.
The latter can be parsed from left to right (absence applied to god,
then the whole applied to belief = an affirmative belief that there
is no god) or from right to left (belief applied to god, then the
whole applied to absence = no belief on the subject of god).
Or if you really want to be weird, it can be parsed from the outside
in: god has no beliefs.
Since the languages we are working with here -- Greek and English --
typically read from left to right, the left-to-right parsing, which
gives an affirmative belief that there is no god, is most likely
correct.
This fits well with another word: agnosticism = a + gnosis + ism,
absence + knowledge + belief = "I don't know, I believe", read left
to right. A right-to-left reading would be, I don't believe in
knowledge.
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