Why is there really no such thing as an atheist?
962995
Well it's good to see that the guy at work is being honest.  He and you are correct; you must be all-knowing to be an atheist.
1159015
Every atheist is different, but it probably stems from the fact that most people simply can't 'believe' that another person can't BELIEVE in something.  After all, they've been trained/ taught/ conditioned since childhood to believe in god or some kind of creator.  To not believe kind of boggles their mind.  So they pre-judge others on their on observations.
742688
You are right, you are confused about atheists, you also have a very funny idea about what belief entails... \n\nAtheists have belief in evidenced things with proof, however blind faith of the religious kind requires no proof or evidence that is why it is called faith, if there was evidence for God it wouldn't require faith to believe in God. \n\nOne of the problems with blind faith is that you can believe almost anything through it, God, The Celestial Teapot, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, Vanilla Flavoured Fairies or anything that cannot be proved or disproved, this invalidates blind faith as a tool of knowledge.\n\nThe onus is always on the person or organisation making a claim to provide proof or evidence for it. When there is no way to test the truth of the claim because of a lack of proof or evidence it is called unfalsifiable.\n\nI have no beliefs about God I simply do not share the theists belief in the existence of God/Gods, I have no reason to think that a God exists and it is not hypocritical for me as an atheist to say so. Hope this explains it a bit better for you.
359535
some people have a large amount of "brain" and "logics"\nthey don't believe what they couldn't see, couldn't touch, couldn't feel.\n\nand some people thing that even some atheist doesn't believe in god, that people is blessed also.
242121
It takes what one would call 'faith'. I personally consider myself to have no religion, therefore I don't entirely understand why someone, rather most people in this world, would believe in a 'higher power', an 'intelligent creator', or 'GOD'.
395887
an atheist does not beleive in the concept of a God.\n\nan agnostic thinks there may be a God, and is intelligent enough to admit that no man-made religion knows what God is, nor is he, the agnostic, wise enough to define or understand God.\n\nif only people were intelligent enough to acknowledge that, and not need a crutch like religion to get through life.
737213
Atheist versus agnostic?\n\nFrom the American Heritage Dictionary:\n\nAgnos·tic - One who believes that there can be no proof of the existence of God but does not deny the possibility that God exists.\n\nAtheism 1.a. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods. b. The doctrine that there is no God or gods. 2. Godlessness; immorality.\n\nIn other words,\nthe agnostic doubts that God exists but leaves the finding of God open as a possibility ("gnosis" knowing, seeing; "a" not)\n\nThe atheist denies that God exists ("a" not; "theo" God).\n\nThis raises the question, "How could we prove God?" \n\nGod has no image, says the Bible. That is, with scientific means as practiced nowadays in a materialistic way, we will not be able to prove God!\n\nHowever, advanced logic may lead us to realize that their must a God, Creator of all things and in all things, as the Bible states.\n\nGood question. Thanks.\nCordially, India.Magica
632787
I pretty much agree with you. An atheist is sure that God does not exist, and an agnostic isn't willing to commit either way. (Sort of like the dyslexic agnostic who developed insomnia. He kept lying awake at night wondering if there really is a Dog...).
532282
because people with religion (anykind) can justify their beliefs and they have somewhere to go after life. \n\nunlike atheists, consumed by their logic but still cannot justify their belief.\n \nand where does atheists go to after death??? >> six feet under rotting..\n\ndo they have souls??? haha
456758
Atheists do not believe in the existence of God; it would be more appropriate to say that they believe that everything has an observable scientific rationale. What is scientific, and what not, is another question altogether. As noted by Stephen Hawking in "A Brief history of time", the more one learns about the universe, the more one is compelled to believe in the existence of God.\n\nThe theory of there being an unparallelled supreme being in control of the universe, can also be considered as scientific a theory as any other, albeit not that easily observable. But for that matter, even accepted(?) scientific principles relating to astrological phenomenon cannot be easily observed.\n\nFrom the statistics given by you, it is obvious that earth is in a very precarious position, one mile out of orbit and it would go crashing into the sun. The universe is not infinite; only the theory of existence of God can reconcile the question of why this is so, and what is beyond?\n\nAnother theory why atheists do not believe in God could be that they are afraid of accepting that their destinies are pre-written (something that is a part of most religions. The end result, however, is that the war between science and religion will continue until the day when either one of them comprehensively wins, or they realise that all this time they have been fighting the same battle, treading the same path, the path of truth and knowledge.
998545
A better question is why do people choose to label themselves at all? Why do people call themselves one thing when truly it doesn't fit in with their own beliefs? lol. I know some Atheist that say they don't believe in God but really they believe in something so is it just the name "GOD" that they don't believe in? People can never fit in under some label and general description. We are all too unique for that. \nLove & Light\nSharon\nOne Planet = One People
328040
Being an atheist means one more thing (or, depending on how you look at it, thousands) you won't have to fool yourself about.  Because now, all you have to do is deal with concrete evidence, and the implications of that evidence.  It takes a lot of effort to maintain an honest religious mindset, and as an atheist, you've got a little more brain energy to devote to making real sense of things.
1033165
An atheist doesn't believe in a deity. An agnostic doubts the existence of a deity. A deist, on the other hand, believes them both to be wrong. It's beginning to sound like a 'shell game' doesn't it?
800491
Personally I don't have any sort of spirituality.  There is such a thing as nontheistic religious humanism (see first source link), but if anything, I'd wager that atheists are normally Secular Humanists (see second source link).\n\nBasically to be an atheist, one must be without belief in deities.  There are different kinds of atheism, though: strong atheism, weak atheism, implicit atheism, explicit atheism, ignosticism and apatheism.\n\nStrong atheism: the belief that no deity exists. It is a form of explicit atheism, meaning that it consciously rejects theism.\n\nWeak atheism: the absence of belief in the existence of deities, without the belief in the non-existence of deities.\n\nExplicit atheism: refection of a belief in a god. This deliberate rejection of theism presupposes familiarity with theistic belief.\n\nImplicit atheism: absence of a belief in god without explicitly rejecting or denying theism. This form does not require familiarity with the idea of a god.\n\nIgnosticism: the view that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because it has no verifiable (or testable) consequences and should therefore be ignored. It is often considered synonymous with theological noncognitivism (the argument that religious language, and specifically words like "god", are not cognitively meaningful).\n\nAn apatheist is someone who has little or no interest in deities to point that he or she does not care whether deities exist and, typically, is not interested in deciding whether he or she believes in deities. In other words, an apatheist is someone who lacks belief in gods and lacks interest in gods to the point that he or she doesn't bother to determine whether he or she actually disbelieves in gods.
216267
Atheism, in its broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of gods. This definition includes both those who assert that there are no gods, and those who make no claim about whether gods exist or not. Narrower definitions, however, often only qualify those who assert there are no gods as atheists, labelling the others as agnostics or simply non-theists.
769794
As an agnostic I had once thought that atheism could be a belief\nbut no\nAtheists don't claim anyhing\nwhat they do is refusing the existing claims\nso atheism can't be considered as a religion\ndenying a claim is not a belief\nbut what I don't understand is how can they be such sure\nhow can they be sure that all the claims are wrong\nI personally don't make claims\nand don't totally deny all claims\nfor example: deists' claim seem rational: a supreme being not related to religions\nthis can be true\nhow can I completely deny this?\nhow can I be sure?\nI even can't completely disprove religions' claims\na theist, a deist, an atheist \nthey are all sure\nan agnostic asks: how can you be so sure, all of you?
1058363
Most atheists are not very pro-active about it - this site, however, is a breeding ground for zealots with too much time on their hands.  Atheism is not a religion in the sense that there are no beliefs in the supernatural, which is the definition.  If you want to ignore the definition, sure, caregorize atheism as a religion, but it's really more the horrible connotation of religion we object to, not the mystical denotation.\nHave a pleasant day.