Atheism
What is it? And what is it not?
Most people who dislike atheists or atheism do not even know what the term actually means. This is the basic Wikipedia definition, with added emphasis:
Atheism is the absence or rejection of belief in deities, or the explicit view that there are no deities.
Many atheists are skeptical of all supernatural beings and cite a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Others argue for atheism on philosophical, social or historical grounds. Many atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism and naturalism, but, as for theists, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere.
A lot of times, it is presumed that all atheists are scientists, or at least strictly adhere to scientific principles. It might also be assumed that all scientists are atheists. Neither statement is true, not in definition nor in reality. An atheist is completely free to disregard science entirely, just as a scientist is completely free to practice any religion he or she chooses to. There is also the fact that many people think that science and religion are mutually exclusive. In most respects, this is false. However, in cases like that of the theory of evolution against a literal reading of the bible, this is unfortunately true. The official standpoint of this blog is that the verified facts and laws of nature rank higher than the alleged holy word of a theistic deity in any such conflict.