Defining "Atheism"

[Existentialist]

All it takes to be considered atheism is to lack a belief in gods. Holding a belief that there is no god is also atheism, but that belief is not necessary for a position to qualify as atheism, only the lack of belief is needed.

I do not understand why you cannot understand that.

Thanks Paul. It seems to me that the subject of atheism is an enquiry into the existence or non-existence of god. That is the primary issue.

Belief is a different subject.

Knowledge is a different subject.

If God exists, he will continue to exist whether humans believe it or not. He will exist whether humans have knowledge of his existence or not. He will exist whether humans have reasons to know or not to know whether he exists or not. It seems that in many discussions about atheism, the subject of whether or not God exists is getting mixed up with the subject of whether or not a human being has a belief or a lack of belief, and also with another subject again about whether a human can have knowledge of god's existence and then even whether he can have a reason to have knowledge of it. This seems to me to be making things very complicated. That is why I am having trouble understanding some of the things being said to me. When you add in a lot of unnecessary anger from certain quarters, it does not help the process of understanding, in fact it's a little bit like being at school - a bad one.