WHAT IS ATHEISM?
Atheism is:
- the lack of belief in a god.
- the belief that there is no god.
A person who holds to atheism is called an atheist.
"*Atheism, therefore, is the absence of theistic belief.* One who does not believe in the existence of a god or supernatural being is properly designated as an atheist. Atheism is sometimes defined as "the belief that there is no God of any kind," or the claim that a god cannot exist. While these are categories of atheism, they do not exhaust the meaning of atheism-- and are somewhat misleading with respect to the basic nature of atheism. *Atheism, in its basic form, is not a belief: it is the absence of belief.* An atheist is not primarily a person who *believes* that a god does *not* exist, rather he does *not believe* in the existence of a god." --George Smith
Agnosticism:
Agnosticism is often confuse with atheism. But agnosticism is not about god, it is about the certainty knowledge.
- Agnosticism is the opposite of gnosis, "knowledge". It is the view that any ultimate reality (including knowledge about god) is unknown and unknowable.
A person who holds to agnosticism is called an agnostic.
There is nothing partictularly unique about agnosticism because many religious believers do not claim to know that god exists, only that they believe in god. Similarly, many atheists do not claim to know that god does not exhist, only that they do not believe in one. Yet both fit the definition of agnosticism.
What atheism is not.
- Atheism is not a religion.
- Atheism is not a belief system as atheism at best has only one single belief: that their is no god.
- Atheism takes no position on morality or ethics.
- Atheism takes no position of the origin, evolution or nature of man or the universe.
This confusion comes when one mistakes "atheism" for the beliefs that some or many atheists hold.