This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Mike18xx (talk | contribs) at 21:08, 31 January 2006 (Vandalism by Farhansher RV'd; fortunately for him, I have a thick skin and don't tattle-tale name-calling in comment fields to admins like his buddies do. But ya never know: someone else might.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 21:08, 31 January 2006 by Mike18xx (talk | contribs) (Vandalism by Farhansher RV'd; fortunately for him, I have a thick skin and don't tattle-tale name-calling in comment fields to admins like his buddies do. But ya never know: someone else might.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)An "infidel" is an unbeliever concerning central tenets of a religion, often used in a pejorative sense to describe those who explicitly deny them (especially regarding asserted aspects of a religion's deities). More generally, an infidel is one who doubts or rejects a particular (usually heirarchical) doctrine, system, or principle.
- In Christianity, "infidel" is an archaism now supplanted variously by "atheist", "agnostic", "heathen" or "pagan".
- In Islam, an Arabic term romanized as "kafir" is used for atheists and the followers of other religions apart from the People of the Book (generally taken to be Jews, Christians and Samaritans), and is often translated as "infidel". It may also be used in some contexts for Peoples of the Book.
Other terms arising from the same general concept, but not rendered to "infidel" in English:
- In Hinduism, "nastik" describes one who does not recognize the authority of the Vedas, and "mleccha" (archaism), someone who does not follow the Hindu way of living.
(See Infidel (computer game) for the 1983 computer text adventure from Infocom.)