What makes an atheist? Is he or she one who says “God absolutely does not exist”? Certainly most atheists I know wouldn’t say that. Unfortunately, like most religious people, most dictionaries misrepresent atheism, with definitions like “Denial of the existence of God.”
What Atheists Believe
1. Evidence and experience are the proper basis for any beliefs.
2. Those who make an assertion have the responsibility to prove it.
If a person has no experience to convince him, and you can’t prove the existence of God, he has no reason to believe God exists. He also has no reason to say God doesn’t exist, if he cannot prove this belief. Why would he waste time trying to “prove” the non-existence in reality of a concept as nebulous as God? If someone said a blue snake in the sky ruled the universe, you wouldn’t believe it, and you would be an “aserpentist,” but you wouldn’t start gathering evidence to “prove” that no invisible blue snake was up there, would you?
You might wonder, since atheism is simply non-belief due to unconvincing evidence, rather than an...