I'm an atheist. All it means is that I don't believe in your religion, the same you don't believe in everyone else's religion (except yours). Your non-belief of say...Zeus (assuming that's not your god) doesn't make it a 'religion'. You're not in the 'religion' of not believing in Zeus...you just don't believe in it.
Now imagine living in a society dominated by Zeus believers hehe. ;)
There are some people who call themselves atheists who *do* have beliefs, they believe there is no god, period. It's often refered to as 'positive atheism'. As they make a claim (there is no god) the burden of proof is upon them.
Of course they can no more prove there is no god than believers can prove their various gods. It's a null prospect because the religious will tell you it involves FAITH, which is believing in something despite the facts (or in the absence of evidence).
As far as morality goes...there are certainly good people and bad people in any 'grouping' of people. I know that many people have argued that because "we" do not believe in an afterlife we're somehow immoral (doing whatever we want because this is it!). I find that thinking both weird and disturbing.
I have no idea what happens after death, but certainly all evidence points to this being 'it'. I think it's pretty likely to be so. And as such, it makes life that much more precious, and what we do so much MORE valuable. I don't have the luxury of believing that somehow bad things don't matter because the balance sheet will be cosmically balanced later by some entity.
Does that make me a 'better' person than someone who's religious? Not necessarily, depends on what that religious person *does*.
Personally I've found that most people are good and decent people, which makes the bad seem so much worse. And some unfortunately are extremely horrible, not caring what they do to others.
What people profess to believe or not believe matters very little to me. You can believe the earth is balanced on the back of a turtle for all I care. Just don't push your beliefs onto others (or want it taught as fact or science) and don't be an asshole.
Most religions have tenants which boil down to "Don't be an asshole", which is something I think we can all live with. :)
I'm an atheist. All it means is that I don't believe in your religion, the same you don't believe in everyone else's religion (except yours). Your non-belief of say...Zeus (assuming that's not your god) doesn't make it a 'religion'. You're not in the 'religion' of not believing in Zeus...you just don't believe in it.
Now imagine living in a society dominated by Zeus believers hehe. ;)
There are some people who call themselves atheists who *do* have beliefs, they believe there is no god, period. It's often refered to as 'positive atheism'. As they make a claim (there is no god) the burden of proof is upon them.
Of course they can no more prove there is no god than believers can prove their various gods. It's a null prospect because the religious will tell you it involves FAITH, which is believing in something despite the facts (or in the absence of evidence).
As far as morality goes...there are certainly good people and bad people in any 'grouping' of people. I know that many people have argued that because "we" do not believe in an afterlife we're somehow immoral (doing whatever we want because this is it!). I find that thinking both weird and disturbing.
I have no idea what happens after death, but certainly all evidence points to this being 'it'. I think it's pretty likely to be so. And as such, it makes life that much more precious, and what we do so much MORE valuable. I don't have the luxury of believing that somehow bad things don't matter because the balance sheet will be cosmically balanced later by some entity.
Does that make me a 'better' person than someone who's religious? Not necessarily, depends on what that religious person *does*.
Personally I've found that most people are good and decent people, which makes the bad seem so much worse. And some unfortunately are extremely horrible, not caring what they do to others.
What people profess to believe or not believe matters very little to me. You can believe the earth is balanced on the back of a turtle for all I care. Just don't push your beliefs onto others (or want it taught as fact or science) and don't be an asshole.
Most religions have tenants which boil down to "Don't be an asshole", which is something I think we can all live with. :)