Misconceptions

When people hear the word atheist a lot of negative misconceptions occur. I would like to better inform people of what an atheist is.

A theist is someone who believes in a god or higher power. An atheist or a-theist, "a" meaning non and "theist", is a non believer. Atheism is not a religion. Nothing else comes with that title besides the already stated of being a non believer.

Misconception #1: That atheists have no morals. This is incorrect. We are very moral people. We abide by laws just like other people would and we treat others with the same respect we would like to be treated.

#2: That our lives have no meaning. Incorrect. Our lives probably have even more meaning because we think that this is our only shot at life and we better savior and cherish every moment we have on this planet. We are busy living instead of waiting/preparing for death.

#3: Atheists are violent. I'm not going to say all atheists are not violent because I'm sure there are violent atheists but if you Google non-violent countries or the statistics of criminals in prison that are atheists you will find that atheists are much less violent then people who are theists.

#4: That something horrible had to happen to us to have chose to be a non-believer. In the majority of cases, you'll find that atheists have thought very hard about their belief in God, and found that it just doesn't hang together logically.

#5: Atheists hate God. Not true. Atheists may hate what the belief in God does to society or individuals but you can not hate something you don't believe in. It would be like a Christian saying he hates Zeus. It is simply illogical.

I hope this has cleared up some of the misconceptions of an atheist. If you have any other questions you would like to have answered by an atheist feel free to ask.

-Megan