Evolution is not part of atheism.

Atheism is simply the lack of belief in any god(s). Typically and colloquially this is typified by a non-belief in the monotheistic gods of the Abrahamic religions. While I don't believe in the polytheistic gods of ancient Greece, I doubted anybody taking this debate would believe in them either. There's an old saying that your typical theist is an atheist on the millions of different gods who have every been believed in the history of the world, we just go one god further. Atheism is not a broad philosophical concept. Atheism is the lack of a belief. Atheism is the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs. Atheism has no tenets, no beliefs, no structures, no dogma, nothing. I am not referring to atheism "in general" as the Encyclopedia Britannica might. Although, to deny a belief is by default to not accept that belief. All the various "sub-species" are simply related beliefs that happen to not require a belief in God and even suppose a few things about why the idiotic may not be true. Nothing of which puts asunder the fact that atheism is the lack of belief in any gods. A good number of reasonable religious groups have no qualms with evolution being the tool of their god's creation. They accept that evolution clearly happened based on the overwhelming evidence that it did. Believing the evidence and not believing in gods are not causally linked or required in any fashion one to the other. >>Firstly, atheism is a broad concept that involves (amongst other things) the active thought process of negating the existence of a god. No it isn't. Atheism is a non-belief in gods. A- (without) theism (belief in gods), without the belief in gods. >>Secondly, the theory of evolution is a major (if not the main) alternative used by the theoretical atheist when confronting the concept of intelligent design. Evolution isn't an alternative to anything or a tool for confrontation. Evolution is a scientific theory based on the preponderance of evidence which lead to a specific conclusion of a gradual change of the life on this planet by the mechanism of natural selection. >>It follows therefore that evolution is very much part of atheism. This does not follow. ------- I show the desync between evolution and atheism via atheists who don't believe in evolution and theists who believe in evolution in order to show that there is not a required overlap. If evolution were a part of atheism shouldn't it be true for atheists should believe in evolution? Further, there is no middle ground between atheism and theism. You either believe there is a god(s) or you don't. If you don't your an atheist. If theists can believe in evolution then how could it be a part of atheism? If it's a part of both then it certainly cannot be described as limited to either in any reasonable way. Thus evolution is not a part of atheism. Further, my argument goes on to point out that atheism doesn't have any beliefs, tenets, dogmas, stances, positions, or anything else. With 0 shared tenets it is categorically impossible that evolution could be one of those shared tenets. >>Are Raelians really atheists? Yes. The Raelians do not believe in gods and thus are not theists, they are thusly atheistic. >>My opponent's proposition that they are because they do not believe in "God" would be correct, had he applied the correct definition of atheism. Generally it's better to just suppose that that "one god further" is an Abrahamic god, and thus define atheism as lacking belief in God. It is however, admittedly true, that atheism is the lack of belief in any god. Harping on a minor point where I sided with a colloquilial usage to avoid derailing the argument is not going to win you any points. >>Could it be argued that Raelinas are in fact theists? They believe in some very very very very advanced beings from outer space who came to Earth and used their vastly superior technology and knowledge to engineer DNA and create all life on Earth. Could we say that to the Raelians they were gods? No. Because the Raelians do not consider them gods. If the Raelians believed the aliens who created life on this planet to be gods they would be theists. It isn't the supposed abilities of the aliens but the considerations of believers. If you were to believe that the universe is god, as some theistic scientific naturalistic pantheists do then you would be a theist. --------------- Atheism has no beliefs. Evolution cannot be a belief of atheism. Some atheists don't believe in evolution, not just Raelians but other individuals who "just don't buy it". Some theists do believe in evolution, such as those who believe in "theistic evolution" which makes for a good 20% or so in a number of polls.