It's great! If you want to say the opposite of something, you just put "mal" before it.
theism= tiesmo
atheist= atiesmo
Wait. What? That's fucking stupid. What is the point of making a prefix you don't even use? It should either be "netiesmo" (not theist) or "maltiesmo" (strong atheist "god doesn't exist").
Name:
Michjo2011-03-25 19:19
2 cents' worth from an Esperanto speaker:
"teismo" and "ateismo" (not "tiesmo" and "atiesmo") are a (long-standing) glitch - and an optional one at that. You are absolutely allowed to use regular derivation to say "neteismo" and "malteismo" for "atheism". In fact, you can take it one step further: use regular derivation and the perfectly good existing Esperanto roots "Dio" (God) and "-ismo" (belief system) to form "diismo" (theism), and "nediismo" and "maldiismo" (atheism). As an Esperanto speaker, I definitely prefer the fully regular and derived "diismo", "nediismo" and "maldiismo" over the other less-regular and/or less-derived forms. I additionally dislike the word "teismo" because of its ambiguity (is it "belief in God", or is it "belief in tea" [te-o = tea, -ismo = belief system]?).
Esperanto speakers can vote on vocabulary with their feet. Hopefully, these words are on their way out, even if they still appear in the Plena Vortaro de Esperanto.