Jan Ardena said:
Don't be so patronising. If the person said they were atheist, then that is what they were. Someone who doesn't believe in God.
non-religious does not necessarily mean atheist, atheism is not simple non-religious.
there are some who say they are atheist that dont really understand what an atheist is, (these are usually the religious, trying to make a point, or agnostics, or deists).
there are no god/gods, all it would take is one single instance of the thing for it to exist, where is that one thing.
Jan Ardena said:
An atheist is someone who does not believe in God, a theist is someone that does.
atheist from the greek atheos a (without) and theos (god).
Atheism is "without belief in god." Therefore, an atheist would have "no belief."atheism, is not a belief, just the opposite, atheism is the natural way of things, the religious have just diversified in to fantasy.
dictionary.con defines it as
1. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
2. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.
however two points here, it's not a belief, so there cannot be any disbelief, and there cannot be be any denial, for to deny something you must first believe it exists. I believe that atheism, is an indifference to the issue of a god's existence, dictionary.com's second statement is closer
encarta defines it as, unbelief in god or deities.
most dictionaries get it wrong, because they were originally written and printed by theists.
We are all born atheists til our parents or priest abuse us with the religious mind virus
atheism is individual, atheism is what you are, before religion has taken hold, nobody who has been atheist from birth or rediscovered it/cleared his head, would go back to being religious not without the use of drugs or brain damage.