http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/mathew/intro.html
This summary of the article linked above is of an educational nature for those on here wanting to know about religious stances in life. I have provided a link above should you want to study a more in-depth analysis. I thank an esteemed reader on here, Charles Evendumber for this educational link.
May I mention before you read any further that I won’t be getting into the normal mudslinging religious debate about the virtues of any religion in the comment section of this article. The purpose of this article is to highlight the different definitions of atheism.
WHAT IS ATHEISM?
Atheism is the absence of belief in the existence of gods. This absence could be a choice individuals make and the inability to believe any religious teaching which seems literally incredible. It is not a lack of belief born out of ignorance. Atheist would mostly have been religious people at one stage with a thorough knowledge of theism to have come to an atheistic conclusion.
We have many esteemed atheists on News 24 with a thorough knowledge about religion, and in most cases even more so than the theist normally opposing them. It would be beneficial to any reader to read their arguments before opposing them.
Atheists can be grouped into two categories:
Weak Atheism is a simple scepticism or disbelief in God.
Strong Atheism is an explicit belief that God does not exist.
WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM?
Agnostics believe that we simply do not know if God or gods exist and can never know for sure. Thus they believe that the knowledge of a God in inconclusive.
WHAT IS A FREETHINKER?
A Freethinker is someone that will consider any possibility provided the reasoning is backed by scientific proof.
I get the impression that many religious people on here seem to think that atheism goes hand in hand in hand with being without morals and that you can only have morals provided you subscribe to a certain religion.
The majority of atheists are principled people with morals sometimes higher than those of religious people. In their minds they don’t need a god to lay down laws for them to abide by, but can define their own moral values.
Many atheists on here regard religious people as stupid and uneducated believing in fairytales. It is up to every individual to decide in life what makes sense to him or her. You should follow your heart but be cautious not to condemn another person for their stance on this matter.
I hope this clears up the term atheism for those newcomers to this debate and when you engage in this religious debate that you would first acquaint yourself with the definition of an atheist.
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