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Atheism 101: Aren't atheists dogmatic about their "faith" too?

This is a question atheists are often asked by others, though sometimes theists throw it at us in the form of an unalloyed statement of fact. My first inclination when I hear this is to reply that I have no faith and therefore no dogma and that's true enough for me. When speaking of all atheists however, it can be a little more complicated than that. There are the so-called "hard" or "strong" atheists who state, as an article of faith, that God(s) does not exist. That is a dogmatic belief but it's very much a minority viewpoint among atheists. Most these days are "soft" atheists. We state that we do not believe in God(s) and there's a world of difference between that and categorically stating "there ain't no sech animul." The "soft" atheists acknowledge that the universe is too large a place for absolute proof of god(s)' nonexistance to be obtained (depending, of course, on how you define "god." Some definitions can be shown to be logically impossible). "Soft" atheists therefore generally say something to the effect that the available evidence offers no compelling reason to believe in supernatural overlords. That's what most modern atheists believe.

It's important to know the difference between dogmas and systems of thought that allow your conclusions to change when new evidence requires it. A dogma is an authoritative principle, belief, or statement of ideas or opinion, especially one considered to be absolutely true. We value reason and self-correcting logic systems such as scientific naturalism; and we don't value them out of dogmatic certainty, but because they demonstrably work as methods for understanding the world around us. Atheism therefore, is not an article of faith for us or a belief system or a dogma. It's a conclusion that remains open to alteration if the evidence ever demands it.
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Atheists are seldom absolutists. For the most part we leave absolute certainty to those for whom truth is written with a capital "T" and is "revealed" rather than uncovered.
 
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, LA Atheism Examiner

Hugh is a former stamp and coin dealer who is now active in humanist causes in the Los Angeles area.

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