Atheism – It is the belief that there is no God or gods. An atheist does not usually believe in any supernatural or transcendental reality including immortal souls, life after death, ghosts or supernatural powers. The atheist believes only in the natural world and not in any supernatural one. Therefore, atheism is a form of naturalism.
The atheist belief system is based on a plethora of strong evidence and arguments for the best explanation.
The strength of any evidence can be judged by whether it is repeatable and not simply anecdotal. The fact is that an absence of any good evidence when searching relentlessly for it, is evidence for absence.
The arguments used to justify atheism includes induction and abduction.
Atheism is a belief system and not a faith position. The difference is that there is an overwhelming amount of strong evidence for atheism. Religion, on the other hand, requires faith because it involves belief in the existence of entities for which there is a singular lack of strong evidence or even evidence to the contrary.
The truly moral person is the person that has the opportunity to steal but chooses not to. It is an odd morality if a person only behaves ethically out of fear of punishment or the prospect of reward. In this sense, an atheist is a more moral human being than a religious person.
Apologetics is a form of argument, often employed by the religious, that shows that a belief is consistent with the evidence but it cannot be justified by it. This form of argument shows that God can exist, but does not show that he does. It shows that belief in God is not irrational. However, evidence and reason do not point to it either. The weakness in this argument lies in the fact that it can be used to justify belief in almost anything including the Tooth Fairy.
Atheism is part of a progressive story of human culture in which superstition is replaced with rational explanation. At the moment, humanity is passing through adolescence from the belief in a benevolent supernatural father to a state where we throw off our childish illusions and accept the world as it really is.
