Atheism is a belief

Many atheists today claim that atheism is not a belief. There are many different arguments being used to defend this idea. This is a list of the main arguments I have come across. -It is not a belief system -It is not possible to not believe in a non-existent. -It is not a belief; it is the lack of belief. -Belief is not formed by critical scientific investigation but by emotions, feelings and unsubstantiated opinion. Atheism is based off of scientific evidence. To start things off I will give you the definition of belief. Belief - "conviction or acceptance that certain things are true or real."* Believing is accepting an idea when it is not 100% certain to be true. Theists believe that God exists even though there is no defining evidence that proves it. My argument is that atheists believe that God does not exist. Because I am making a claim the burden of proof lies on me. ----------Atheism is not a belief system.---------- Belief - "conviction or acceptance that certain things are true or real."* System - "a set of facts, principles, rules, etc. classified or arranged in a regular, orderly form so as to show a logical plan linking the various parts."* I have broken down the term "belief system" above. If we give atheists the benefit of the doubt to the claim that atheism is not a belief we can remove the term belief. We will get back to that later. Let's look at the word system. A set of facts arranged to show a logical plan linking the various parts. The idea of atheism falls under the definition of system. Atheists do not accept the idea of God because of logical assumptions they generate from scientific facts. This is the system for their thought process. It would be safe to state that there is a system connected to atheism. As stated above we don't have to call it a belief system. At least until I can prove that atheism is also a belief. ----------It is not possible to not believe in a non-existent.---------- This statement is nothing more than a vain attempt to use ambiguous (confusing) wording to confuse any opposition. The use of so many negatives makes it hard for some to understand what is actually being said. "You cannot disbelieve something that does not exist". If this statement is true, then how is it true that "you can believe something does not exist"? If atheists are right and God does not exist, there are still people that believe in something that does not exist (God). Since this situation is true then the claim that "it is not possible to not believe in a non-existent" is false. To make the statement true you would have to replace non-existent with something never conceived. "It is not possible to not believe in an unconceived notion". A person cannot not believe, or believe, in something that has never been thought of. God is a conceived notion so he does not fit into this statement. Therefore when faced with the questions of do you believe in God? Do you believe in the idea of God? Or any similar variations relating to God the answer is yes, no, or I don't know. ----------It is not a belief; it is the lack of belief.---------- Belief - "conviction or acceptance that certain things are true or real."* Lack - "the fact or condition of not having enough; shortage; deficiency; or complete absence."* "Lack of belief" in the existence of God is "not having enough belief, or any belief, in the existence of God." The only difference between not believing and lack of belief is that lacking belief in the existence of God is not always atheism. Not having enough belief in the existence of God is stating that someone doesn't fully believe in the existence of God. If that is the case then there must be some belief in the existence of God, even if it's only a tiny bit. The other option available is the person has no belief in the existence of God, In which case they do not believe in the existence of God. Not believing is the same as lack of belief when the term lack is used to describe a complete absence. Also the term lack of belief cannot be used without the subject. What are you lacking belief in? The full statement is "lack of belief in the existence of God", "no belief in the existence of God", "not believing in the existence of God". ----------Atheism is based off of scientific evidence.---------- Many atheists claim that science proves that God does not exist. This is why they feel that atheism does not fit under the definition of belief. They claim that there is no doubt scientifically that God is not real. If this is the case then atheism would be considered knowledge and not belief. Two things atheists use to disprove the existence of God are evolution and the big bang. These are two of the biggest scientific arguments given in the support of atheism. There is one problem with atheists claim. Evolution and the big bang are both theories. Scientifically these explanations are not laws or facts. They both have evidence to support their claims, but for a theory to become law it must pass every test. Failure to satisfy one test means that it is false. Neither the evolution theory nor the big bang theory has passed every test. This does not mean that they are wrong, but it does mean that they are not 100% proven facts. We now come to the conclusion that atheist believe in evolution and the big bang theories. They cannot claim that either of the two are 100% factual. With this in mind it is safe to make the claim that atheist believe in science. They believe that science will eventually disprove the existence of God. Going back to the original claim that atheism is knowledge and not belief, we can see that this is not the case. Atheism is not knowledge it is a belief. With everything broken down to its basic meaning we can see that atheism is a belief. And since it also falls under the definition of system we can call it a belief system. A belief system is not the same thing as a religion. I think that many atheists oppose the label "belief system" because it closely relates to religion. Religion is a belief system; a belief system is not always a religion. To sum things up there is no gene that makes a person believe or not believe in God. People choose to be atheistic, just as people choose to believe in God. *Definitions from Webster's New World College Dictionary.