Atheism as a belief

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I was not necessarily referring to you, my friend.

I suppose it depends on the type of atheism. It is a belief but not necessarily a religious belief. As someone with a background in science and a decent understanding of evolution, I would say it's highly unlikely that an all-powerful divinity capable of intervening in worldly affairs exists as posited by any major religious group.

If a god does exist I would say that it's unconscious and is more or less some sort of source for the beginning of the universe that doesn't care if you pray to it much less how.

It would be great if there were some testable and falsifiable way to know for certain.

Sorry Legato. It's so easy to get in the mix of things.

Don't worry 'bout it hon.

well, regarding my and lpp's opinions: that has a bit of a backstory and a lot of tongue-biting on my part. to top it all off, thats quite the one thing that really gets me riled up in this whole debate - argumenting as if science had the slightest bit to say in this debate. it doesnt - nor regarding its subject (the whole subject of god and creation doesnt fall into the empirical realm - in terms of creation, we can as well talk reason, not cause) neither methodically (inductive reasoning wont lead to absolute dictums).

its true that this is one of the big "unanswerable" questions - but that in itself is an answer of a kind: is it there or not? - you cant know. so there is some stuff about the whole matter than can be very black/white: yes, it is unanswerable, no it cant be known.

greatcelerystalk: i like the terms of "belief, but not a religious belief" for hard atheism. the kind of god as more of a basic underlying reason or principle instead of a more personified entity had quite its share of proponents in history. just for example, there was avicenna, about 1000 ad., who was quite a rational theologist. a muslim, too.