Not Dead, Just an Atheist
Atheism is hardcore.
To say that a supernatural entity, let's say, for example, the God of Abraham, but we could be talking Allah or Thor or His Eminence the Grand Explodo, does not exist period, is to take a great a leap of faith as to say that such a being exists, because who are you as a three-dimensional being to know in our (at minimum) four dimensional universe if anyone or anything is out there or not? Thankfully, this is not atheism. Atheism can be this, but more precisely, atheism is the profession of not believing in believing in something, rather than an outright rejection of the same.
"But wait, that's agnosticism," you say.
Well, you'd be right. And wrong.
Atheism, literally taken, means "without faith," that is, professing no faith, and not simply deciding one way or another that a god exists. Saying "I don't believe in god" is not an admission that there is no god, simply that the speaker doesn't believe in a supernatural deity. There's no need to reject anything outright, simply a need to not pick it up in the first place. It's not like you're not checking, however. I know that if I found out such a being existed (or they; could be several beings), I'd sure as heck worship it if that's what it wanted (after all, it has absolute, unflinching control over this reality, not unlike a dictator that cannot be rebelled against). Unfortunately, this evidence can't show up unless said entity shows up and asks how everything is going and if we'd like a little more miracle, maybe some fire from the heavens, or a nice rain of bread or something.
Atheism does have a requirement, though, mostly that you take the universe with a grain of salt. After all, the universe has people in it, and a lot of them are assholes who need a giant father figure ready with the fire and brimstone if they act up. They'll ask you where you get your morals from, and you should reply with a thank you that they acknowledged that you have morals. Shoot 'em back: ask 'em why they need the threat of eternal torment to be nice people, and they can't just be nice on their own. It scares the crap out of 'em to know that someone doesn't need to have a security camera burnin' a hole in their back to be nice.
Anyway, let's go back to the God of Abraham. According to our good friend the Bible, this guy loved him some miracles. He'd miracle left and right all over the place. There was fire from heaven, giant pillars of fire, rain of bread, removing demons, and smiting. Lots of smiting. An unbelievable amount of smiting. Nowadays, you don't see that. Where is it at? The guy who used to lay all manner of divine smackdown all over the blessed place can't be bothered to do more than make someone shiver or blabber incoherently or make swamp kinfolk hold rattlesnakes?
To say that a supernatural entity, let's say, for example, the God of Abraham, but we could be talking Allah or Thor or His Eminence the Grand Explodo, does not exist period, is to take a great a leap of faith as to say that such a being exists, because who are you as a three-dimensional being to know in our (at minimum) four dimensional universe if anyone or anything is out there or not? Thankfully, this is not atheism. Atheism can be this, but more precisely, atheism is the profession of not believing in believing in something, rather than an outright rejection of the same.
"But wait, that's agnosticism," you say.
Well, you'd be right. And wrong.
Atheism, literally taken, means "without faith," that is, professing no faith, and not simply deciding one way or another that a god exists. Saying "I don't believe in god" is not an admission that there is no god, simply that the speaker doesn't believe in a supernatural deity. There's no need to reject anything outright, simply a need to not pick it up in the first place. It's not like you're not checking, however. I know that if I found out such a being existed (or they; could be several beings), I'd sure as heck worship it if that's what it wanted (after all, it has absolute, unflinching control over this reality, not unlike a dictator that cannot be rebelled against). Unfortunately, this evidence can't show up unless said entity shows up and asks how everything is going and if we'd like a little more miracle, maybe some fire from the heavens, or a nice rain of bread or something.
Atheism does have a requirement, though, mostly that you take the universe with a grain of salt. After all, the universe has people in it, and a lot of them are assholes who need a giant father figure ready with the fire and brimstone if they act up. They'll ask you where you get your morals from, and you should reply with a thank you that they acknowledged that you have morals. Shoot 'em back: ask 'em why they need the threat of eternal torment to be nice people, and they can't just be nice on their own. It scares the crap out of 'em to know that someone doesn't need to have a security camera burnin' a hole in their back to be nice.
Anyway, let's go back to the God of Abraham. According to our good friend the Bible, this guy loved him some miracles. He'd miracle left and right all over the place. There was fire from heaven, giant pillars of fire, rain of bread, removing demons, and smiting. Lots of smiting. An unbelievable amount of smiting. Nowadays, you don't see that. Where is it at? The guy who used to lay all manner of divine smackdown all over the blessed place can't be bothered to do more than make someone shiver or blabber incoherently or make swamp kinfolk hold rattlesnakes?