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this is a document i found at http://www.wikihow.com/Explain-or-Defend-Atheism
anout athisim whitch i think all should read....



1. Summarize the atheist position as "if we don't know, we don't just make it up." Atheists believe that religious people need to know all of the answers and that atheists do not. Humans have a history of making up convenient explanations for things unknown. For example, the sun was once thought to be a living god; the earth was once thought to be flat; and the earth was once thought to be the center of the universe. In short, explanations based on gods and heaven have been steadily replaced as new knowledge is gained. History suggests that remaining mysteries will be sufficiently explained in terms of familiar and rational forces rather than by supernatural ones. For example, many people believe that a superior being created life, while atheists believe that this is just another scientific phenomena that people have assigned a supernatural explanation.
2. Explain that 'Intelligent design' is just the awe of new experience or of overwhelming complexity. If a caveman is handed a modern camera, he would not guess that it was a result of step-by-step gains in knowledge over a very long time. It would seem inexplicable, magical, perhaps supernatural. 'The gods must have made it' may be a natural thought, but it would be wrong. Atheists believe that the intelligent design argument is like that of the caveman. Atheists do not believe in the supernatural, so we assign a scientific explanation to all phenomena.
3. Clearly define faith or belief: just because people believe that there is a god, and that they have felt that god personally, does not mean that everyone can do the same. Atheists believe that there are no gods and that gods are not a satisfactory explanation of real phenomena, because a deity's existence or influence is untestable.
4. Recognize that religions, abstract from their gods, are important as social instutitions. People clearly have an innate affinity for stories, akin to the popularity of movies, plays, legends, novels and ballads. Our willingness to believe in well-told stories (even supernatural ones) is a trait of human psychology. Religions influence behavior through scripture and tradition presented with or without explanations. Evolution has selected obedient societies based on religions with beneficial behavior. Self-destructive religions (and their adherents) die out. Atheists believe that the reality of gods plays no part in this explanation (although the reality of the idea of gods does).
5. Clarify that to give up on the gods does not mean you give up on morals. Atheists believe that evolution created your moral instincts, not religion. Morals support social order, and over time, societies win out over lone actors. Socially supportive genes and memes get passed on to the next generation. You don't need a god to explain this.
6. Where did the universe come from? Offering God as an explanation is problematic as it begs the question "Where did God come from?" Atheists admit this may be an unsound argument because it is conceivable that the apparent law of causality may break down at universal scales, just as 'fundamental' laws have been observed to break down at quantum scales. This provides an out for God, in that God needs no independent creator. It also provides an out for the non-existence of God, in that a universe without God would also need no creator. Ultimately, the origin of the universe (or the separation between nature and God) devolves into a question of faith.
7. Point out that religious people are themselves atheists with respect to all deities except their own, and that atheists have just taken it one god further.